Looks like Nvidia GeForce RTX 50 Super graphics cards are back on the menu, boys, as fresh rumours point towards an early 2027 release date. The latest insider tidbits contradict adjacent claims that the GPUs will land this year, but I've got a funny feeling most players aren't really keeping track.

The latest RTX 50 Super leak by Benchlife specifically states that the refreshed GPUs will come armed with 3GB GDDR7 VRAM modules and arrive "as early as the beginning of 2027." While the report disputes information by MEGAsizeGPU that the cards will arrive in 2026, it corroborates claims that the lineup includes an 18GB RTX 5070 Super and a 24GB RTX 5080 Super, alongside an apparent RTX 5060 with 12GB VRAM instead of 8GB.

Naturally, the above RTX 50 Super release timeline is anything but confirmed, and it should be ingested with the usual grain of salt. Benchlife's information is potentially based on board partner expectations, and MEGAsizeGPU has clarified that they don't know of a specific release window.

The main question on my mind is whether most players will wait for RTX 50 Super GPUs. Yes, they should provide an fps boost thanks to refreshed specs and slightly more VRAM courtesy of the new 3GB modules, but the overarching issue of PC upgrade pricing is still looming. If Nvidia manages to release the new models with the same MSRP as before, or perhaps even slightly lower, then that would serve as a lure, Otherwise, the new line-up may simply drive people towards vanilla SKUs if they receive resulting discounts.

In any case, you've potentially got a while before you'll even need to think about the RTX 50 Super series. If you're still rocking an RTX 20-series or something older, new GPUs might be on your mind. That said, if you haven't made the jump to the base 50-series yet, chances are that you're still able to run most games reasonably on your current card, and that may inspire you to wait a bit longer for next gen RTX 6000 options instead.

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After months of rumors and leaked listings, Nvidia has finally unveiled its Spark superchip at Computex 2026. The SoC (codenamed N1X) is due to launch in laptops from Asus, Dell, HP, Lenovo, Microsoft, and MSI in Fall of this year, touted to hit over 100fps in 1440p across Triple-A titles.

Speculation has been rife that Nvidia's N1X machines could be coming for the best gaming laptops, ever since the chips most recently leaked in Lenovo Legion listings.

Now we know that the Arm-based chip has been developed alongside MediaTek, providing the 20-core Grace CPU that sits next to the Blackwell main event, a 6144 CUDA-core strong RTX GPU. Essentially, Nvidia's joining big guns like Intel and Qualcomm in the chiplet race, and it's confident in its Arm approach.

The project has a sturdy development force behind it, with Unreal, Xbox, Sega, Konami, Riot, and Remedy among listed developers working with Nvidia to sidestep the performance sacrifices previously inherent with gaming on Arm systems. Running Windows on Arm via the Microsoft Prism emulator has typically yielded framerate drops in the past - there's a whole extra layer of processing going on, after all. However, recent updates have yielded significant progress in this department over the last six months and now Nvidia is ready to dive in.

While the flagship chip (and likely the one Huang is referencing in that 100fps+ statement) will come stocked with 128GB LPDDR5X unified memory, the brand has been quick to point out that "RTX Spark is going to be a family products that are going to attack a lot of different price points." A 16GB option is also on the cards, a sigh of relief considering the current RAM crisis.

Six laptops were thrown up on stage in Taipei, representing the Fall cohort of new releases. These are all productivity powerhouses previously reserved for content creators and professionals - now they're taking aim at the mid-range gaming market as well.

Huang didn't share any concrete performance numbers, but stated that - depending on the game - Nvidia Spark laptops can pack the power of an RTX 5070 mobile equivalent. Salt needed, we all know Nvidia runs small with its sizes in these keynotes.

While pricing might not change between current RTX 5070 / RTX 5060 rates, form factors will. These are not cheaper gaming laptops for the entry level buyer - they're all-in-one (AI-focused) machines that can also run games just as well as a mid-range dedicated device. Nvidia's aiming for laptops running as little as 14mm thick, and as light as three pounds, offering "all-day battery life" and solid gaming performance without a power cable attached. This isn't a power upgrade, then, it's a quality of life upgrade. Just how many of those 100 frames will be generated, remains to be seen.

For now, we'll have to wait for further updates on actual performance (scheduled to come closer to that Fall launch). Huang made no comments about the Spark's viability for the gaming handheld market.

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While many are expecting gaming laptops to cut back on their DRAM in 2026, Nvidia has snuck a VRAM upgrade for us in its latest patch notes. A new 12GB RTX 5070 variant will begin shipping alongside regular 8GB RTX 5070 gaming laptops this year.

The boosted GPU was first leaked last month, when Lenovo published listings with the 12GB version specced out. While lighter games aren't going to appreciate the extra headroom too much, the best gaming laptops running the 12GB card will feel the benefits across more demanding titles. This is where the current 8GB card falls short in QHD resolution, generally averaging between 45 and 50fps in Cyberpunk 2077 RT Ultra among the machines I've tested.

Nvidia slipped the news into its latest patch notes, confirming the new card will pack 24Gb G7 memory across four 3GB chips "to complement the 16Gb G7 supply that currently ships with most GeForce GPUs."

The question is whether Nvidia will also increase the current 128-bit memory interface. A move up to 192-bit bus would support that all-important QHD performance, but it's unlikely the brand will invest quite so much design energy into the new stick.

*Unconfirmed

So far, we only know that the new 12GB RTX 5070 card will increase capacity - there have been no announcements around bandwidth or clock rates. It's likely we're just getting a brute force upgrade here, rather than a faster memory transfer system overall. But hey, we're getting a RAM upgrade in a time of supply chain crisis - just how much the boost will add to the final price tags of new RTX 5070 gaming laptops remains to be seen, however.

When can we expect to see these cards out in the wild? Nvidia's initial rollout is expected to be pretty limited. We know Lenovo and Asus have rigs in production, both brands were spotted listing the new 12GB variants earlier in the year. That means we'll likely see more cards on the shelves as both manufacturers continue rolling out 2026's releases over the summer.

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Things are rough gaming PC land thanks to RAMageddon, and while parts like graphics cards sitting at MSRP should be the norm, they are extremely few and far between. It's for that reason that, despite not being massively into Nvidia's 8GB 60-class cards, it feels like the GeForce RTX 5060 Ti is worth a look while it's under $400.

The model in question is the MSI RTX 5060 Ti 8G Ventus, as it's currently down to $379.99 at Amazon. Keep in mind that custom card MSRPs are a bit bananas compared to Nvidia's recommended price, so the "90-day low" is based on the specific model's full $439.99 ticket. Still, I'm certainly not seeing any other cards like this for under $400, and even the non-Ti versions are only around $30 less.

Ideally, this is how much the GeForce RTX 5070 would cost, but the days of grabbing a proper mid-range GPU, especially by Nvidia, are long gone. As someone who took picking up a GTX 970 ten years ago for granted, that reality stings, but given the modern landscape, I do think the RTX 5060 Ti is a decent option for what could still be described as "reasonable PC upgrade money."

The version I've personally tested is by Palit, but the MSI version should provide similar benchmarks to what I experienced during my review. The TLDR is that it can masquerade as a 4K-capable card if you leverage AI upscaling tools like DLSS, and Frame Generation will boost fps to figures that look impressive. In reality, though, this GPU's comfort zone is 1440p, and when it comes to ray tracing, you might find that 1080p settings are more sensible.

Yes, that's all very lacklustre given the PS5 and Xbox Series X have normalized 4K this generation, and even the Switch 2 is using DLSS to make UHD happen in docked mode. Ultimately, your mileage will vary depending on whether you max out settings or tweak things to hit comparable frame rates, and since cards like the GeForce RTX 5080 are going to be out of reach for most players at over $1,000, there's no shame in dialling things back to achieve better results.

If you're gunning for an AMD build and need an extremely competent alternative, the GPU you're after is the RX 9060 XT. Like Nvidia's 60-class card, the Radeon equivalent can be hard to find for under $400, but there's thankfully an XFX Swift model at Amazon for $339.99.

Just like with the Radeon RX 9070, the RX 9060 XT follows the trend of providing better native performance than the RTX 5060 Ti, but lacks the same AI upscaling oomph. That's in part because AMD is only just considering bringing multi-frame generation to its GPUs, but for some players, not relying as much on what some call "fake frames" is a selling point.

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The decision between the two really comes down to features. If you would use DLSS 4.5 to boost frame rates without a second thought, the RTX 5060 Ti is a no-brainer. If you're of the belief that native rasterized performance should be the norm, go for the RX 9060 XT. The important thing is that both are around the price they should be, and while I'll always criticize GPU makers and vendors alike for not aiming for lower, I'm not turning my nose up at more affordable cards when they do pop up.

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Nvidia's GeForce RTX 3060 12GB graphics card is rumored to launch this June. No, this isn't an article from 2021; the gaming hardware scene has apparently just started peddling backwards. Rather than releasing the RTX 5050, the company is apparently planning to use Ampere to fill the gap, and having also just covered SNK's '90s Neo Geo console making a return, I feel like I'm in a tech hot tub time machine.

Fresh leaks by MEGAsizeGPU suggest the "Post RTX 5050 9G is delayed," and they describe Nvidia's future launch plans as "pretty uncertain now." The insider's latest tweet then throws a curveball by suggesting "the newly produced RTX 3060 will fill the gap, ETA June 2026."

This ties to existing rumours that the RTX 3060 had re-entered production, but the new rumours somewhat help illustrate why. If the RTX 5050 is being pushed back due to RAMageddon-related costs linked to its suspected 9GB GDDR7 VRAM, it will be easier to make another Ampere GDDR6 12GB card at a reasonable price. Plus, while the memory will be a generation behind, you'll technically get a higher CUDA core count.

It might feel bananas substituting a five-year-old graphics card for what would have been a more affordable generational jumping on point. However, the strategy makes sense once you realize that has already set the stage. Back in January, all GeForce cards gained DLSS 4.5 tricks, albeit minus elements like Frame Generation that need the FP8/FP4 support provided by new-gen Tensor cores.

Effectively, whether you remotely have any interest in using new AI upscaling models or tapping into Ray Reconstruction, you can technically do it on an RTX 3060. That's not to say it won't come at a performance cost, though, and the GPU could sweat far more than RTX 40-series models or new-gen options like the RTX 5070 and 5060 due to the older architecture. I guess if you do go for the Ampere card, the horrors of DLSS 5 and its questionable can't reach you, right?

I should point out that while bringing back the RTX 3060 is weird, this isn't the first time Nvidia has resurrected an old GPU in times of trouble. In fact, back in 2021, a refreshed version of the RTX 2060 12GB showed up just before the RTX 4090 and its kin as a stopgap, so you could all this all business as usual.

I'm just slightly worried that I'm actually rapidly falling through time and that I'll be talking about the OG Nvidia RIVA GPU re-launch next week. What's that? Sony is also going to try and take on Nintendo with a console? Good luck chumps.

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YouTube's copyright system is daft, so I'm not really surprised to hear that it blocked Nvidia's own DLSS 5 announcement video off the back of a claim. The blip will likely bring a smile to the face of anti-AI gaming PC players far and wide, but while the mix-up made me snigger, Beavis and Butthead-style, I can't help but feel we're not remotely prepared for more complex gen-AI copyright situations brought on by Nvidia's latest form of upscaling.

Highlighted by NikTek in an X post, the whole DLSS 5 copyright strike incident was initially sparked by La7, an Italian television channel that decided to use Nvidia's footage. Following a broadcast, the TV company issued copyright strikes to any YouTube videos using the same footage, which just so happened to include the original "Announcing NVIDIA DLSS 5" clip from three weeks ago.

As a result, Nvidia's DLSS 5 unveiling was unavailable in Italy for over 24 hours, and plenty of creators were hit with the same strike. The OG clip is now back online, and it's safe to assume the whole affair was likely sparked by automatic processes of some kind. I'd usually just do an "Oh you!" meme head tilt at YouTube's Content ID system and get on with my day, but honestly? I'm now feeling pretty neurotic about the idea that these systems aren't remotely prepared for future incidents sparked by gen AI.

Artists and content creators already have a massive fight on their hands when it comes to AI. While bodies like the UK Government have backtracked on their original plans to allow AI companies to train models using copyrighted content, we're still sailing towards a reality where other people's work could be used to generate other pieces of media that may, in turn, look like an uncanny version of the original source material.

How does this tie back to the DLSS 5 copyright situation? Well, if companies that like to push around their copyright-holding powers, like TV conglomerates, start using more generative AI, we could end up in a situation where the original material suffers the same fate. Yes, the current situation is just a classic instance of YouTube's Content ID system defecating the proverbial bed rather than anything directly linked to video generation. Nevertheless, there's a degree of unfortunate irony here in that the company currently at the receiving end of the hiccup is at the forefront of tech that could spark weirder copyright strikes in the future.

I'm naturally hoping that if gen AI use becomes more of a norm, it won't exacerbate flawed systems like YouTube's Content ID in the future. I mean, if a TV station can spark a bunch of copyright strikes just by using some footage under fair use that doesn't even belong to them, I'd hate to see what might happen in more complex situations where people are generating content based on other work and assets.

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Cyberpunk 2077 has turned into something of a benchmarking standard in itself. Its reliance on demanding graphical technologies, wide range of tweakable options, and easy DLSS support has made it a yardstick by which the performance of the best gaming laptops is easily compared. While Nvidia leans further into AI patches for its graphics cards and AMD stays out of the dedicated GPU race completely, though, those looking for the best native performance are being pushed between marketing pillar and eyebrow-raising presentation graph post.

I've been testing RTX 50-Series gaming laptops for well over a year now and have a whole bunch of stats sitting in a spreadsheet doing nothing. Let's put them to work. If 2026 is the year you upgrade your gaming laptop, but you want to make sure you can run the heaviest releases around, this is what you need to know.

We've got two sides to this performance coin; FHD and QHD. To put it simply, you'll need an RTX 5080 to stay above 60fps in RT Ultra at full 1600p resolution and an RTX 5070 if you're happy to bump down to 1200p.

Of course, each of these gaming laptops have their own processors, RAM amounts, cooling solutions, and chassis designs, all of which can ultimately affect those final framerates. While I've been careful to select a sample size that hits as many corners of the market and price range as possible, it's important to remember that there will be outliers. The Acer Predator Triton 14 AI, for example, is pretty hamstrung by its more efficiency-focused processor, while the Razer Blade 16 works with a much slimmer form factor than MSI's big'uns.

Still, taking averages of my testing pool, it's pretty clear you'll need at least a mid-ranger to even think about 60fps at top settings here.

The RTX 5060 isn't completely out of the game, but it's locked out of the RT Ultra race. With those setting dialled back, the Lenovo Legion 5 Gen 10, MSI Katana 15HX B14W, and Alienware 16X Aurora all keep their heads well above 60fps. The Acer Nitro V16 AI struggles to keep pace, and its FHD-only display bars it from the QHD bout.

What does that mean for you?

If you're trying to work out the best mobile GPU upgrade for your next gaming laptop, Cyberpunk 2077 offers a good frame of reference, but it's not your only concern.

On paper, it looks like you should be looking for an RTX 5080 gaming laptop - happy days, that's the GPU that I found offered the largest performance increase compared to the graphics card class below it. If you're really pushing the boat out you'd go for an RTX 5090, but I wouldn't recommend it.

While the 5090 is technically the best option out there, I found in previous testing that it offers (on average) a 14.79% increase in performance for a 54.27% increase in price (at MSRP, March 2026). You're spending a lot more for a little extra performance.

The other side of the equation is where the RTX 5070 starts to shine a little brighter.

Taking not just MSRPs into account, but actual on-sale rates across major retailers (Best Buy and Newegg, March 2026), an RTX 5080 gaming laptop is, on average, 48.03% more expensive than an RTX 5070 model. Considering most RTX 5070 machines are sitting at around $2,200 on a day to day basis, that's a considerable price tag.

This is the bottom line, the RTX 5080 offers the best performance and value overall from a cold, hard, framerate perspective. If you want a future-proofed gaming laptop that can run the heaviest games of today and tomorrow, there's no way to get around its cost.

Those machines just don't drop their prices though (a sub-$2,000 price tag is the absolute goal here, but I've only seen one offer drop this low and that was over Black Friday). If you're happy to drop back to FHD, the RTX 5070 is an excellent alternative and sees far more frequent gaming laptop deals. You can find these rigs for $1,300 to $1,500 if you're looking at the right time, after all.

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The legendary 3DFX Voodoo, an accelerator card that ushered in a new era of 3D PC gaming back in the '90s, is ready for an FPGA comeback. That's right, while Nvidia likes to remind us it created the first dedicated GPU in the GeForce 256, the component that I personally credit with setting the stage for the entire industry might make its way to new devices in the big 26, and it could make for the perfect escape from the chaos of modern-day graphics cards.

Created by developer Francisco Ayala Le Brun, the "SpinalVoodoo" 3DFX Voodoo FPGA core is already sitting pretty at GitHub. Designed to use the same Terasic De-10 board as the popular MiSTer retro console format, the implementation aims to provide the same unique graphics as a vintage gaming PC armed with the add-on board, which in turn could help devices similar to the Commodore 64 Ultimate or Analogue 3D replicate a specific '90s rig vibe.

Of course, while development is coming along nicely, if the FBI (Frame Buffer Interface) is anything to go by, it could be a while before we see a proper 3DFX Voodoo machine comeback. The GitHub page does show off simulations of a few games, including Quake, Screamer 2, and Valley of Ra, but we're going to need a more powerful FPGA board than the current MiSTer options to actually run the core.

The end game should hopefully be being able to run a bunch of classic PC romps, like the above shortlist or even the likes of Tomb Raider, with 3DFX Voodoo graphics. Again, the card was an additional accelerator that paired with a traditional VGA card, so the vibe is very different from that of a dedicated GPU or something using DirectX. There were even some arcade machines, like Gauntlet Dark Legacy and San Francisco Rush: The Rock, that utilized the graphics tech, so the new FPGA core doesn't just benefit retro PC players.

Again, the current hurdle is that even once the SpinalVoodoo FPGA core is complete, it'll need something more advanced than a current-gen MiSTer with an Intel Pentium CPU implementation, which could help it mimic an old-school PC build. This specific project also appears to focus on Voodoo 1 rather than the later Voodoo 2 and 3 models, so if you're aiming to replicate a specific build in the future, it's worth keeping that in mind.

Still, I am extremely hyped at even the idea of 3DFX Voodoo making a comeback, and this project absolutely sets the stage for new components you could slide into an old rig or even an all-in-one system. The timing is pretty spectacular, considering Nvidia, the company that swallowed the graphics brand back in the 2000s, is coming under fire by devs for trying to make adding generative AI overlays a thing with DLSS 5, and honestly? Ditching dedicated GPUs for old 3D add-in accelerators would make for an amusing protest.

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I'm not remotely surprised that more Indie developers are pushing back against DLSS 5 and Nvidia's gen AI graphics card tools. However, New Blood, a publisher with a focus on retro-style games, is urging devs to push back on the tech while comparing the situation to the rise (and fall) of NFTs and crypto, all while providing player insights that I wholeheartedly agree with.

In a conversation with PC Gamer, New Blood's CEO Dave Oshry and David Szymanski, the developer behind Dusk, Gloomwood, and Iron Lung, delve into their concerns with DLSS 5. The full, unedited comments have since been shared via Bluesky, but I feel like kicking things off with "first of all, who asked for this?!" really sets the stage.

"This isn't even DLSS! Please tell me what generative AI has to do with Deep Learning Super Sampling," Oshry exclaims before suggesting that using phrase "Nvidia Generative Upscaling" would result in instant backlash. At the same time, the CEO says that even if the tech does use DLSS 5 branding, "we all have working eyes and can see exactly what we think it is."

Oshry admits the more effective way to tackle DLSS 5 besides calling Nvidia out is "voting with our wallets" and "stop collaborating with them as developers." The Indie boss believes this might prompt the GPU maker to "go back to giving us what we want," before rhyming off a wishlist of more power and GPUs that should be "getting cheaper with every innovation, not somehow more expensive while we get less value."

These are pretty common concerns in the GPU scene right now, and when it comes to graphics card pricing, external forces have affected costs in the past. The CEO isn't shy when it comes to drawing comparisons, stating developers and players need to push back "just like we did with NFTs and crypto games and try in vain to do with predatory microtransactions, loot boxes, and battle passes."

These are naturally strong comments, but Oshry undertsands the separation between DLSS 5 and previous iterations. While they get a quick jab in at historic failed technologies like Nvidia 3DVision and the shield, he also admits that while elements like RTX and Path Tracing are expensive, "I'll be damned if they don't make Cyberpunk 2077 look good." The "jury is still out" on Frame Generation, though.

One element PC players might not consider is how much it'll cost developers to actually even use DLSS 5. Oshry jokes about how it sounds like you'll inject your games with realistic graphics for free, when really "it'll cost something like $5,000." Even if it didn't require premium GPUs like the RTX 5090, though, the CEO sarcastically asks the question, "At this rate, why make game art at all? Why not just draw some shapes and colours and let AI generate what it thinks it should look like?"

Developer David Szymanski confirms that he agrees with the New Blood CEO while criticizing the idea of DLSS 5 being optional:

"Optional like realtime GI? Optional, like any number of "optional" features that anyone who has played an AA game in the past half decade can tell you aren't really optional, because games are now built to lean on those technologies." Explains Szymanski. The dev also points out that while embracing features like DLSS and raytracing is starting to pay off, "It's been at an immense cost to the clarity, accessibility, and playability of the games that use them for years."

Szymanski's concerns largely tie back to the idea of players getting features they don't really need when the industry is crying out for "games that run at a consistent framerate and sharp resolution, with consistent lighting and art design, on hardware that doesn't require us to remortage out house, using technology that doesn't necessitate turning the world into a Mad Max wasteland." I couldn't have put it better myself.

As amusing as the above plea and Szymanski's comments about how "nobody wants their games to look like Italian brainrot" sound, the core point rings tremendously true. I've had the displeasure of working within the GPU scene during a time where decent midrange performance is locked behind what we used to call premium, and access to good, playable native performance is being swapped out for AI features that are drifting further away from an ordinary gaming experience.

The current PC gaming tech trajectory is pretty unclear, but from where I'm standing as a hardware reviewer, we're charging towards a future where simply running games on a console or rig will be a thing of the past. Between Nvidia pushing for a generative AI future where a model dreams up graphics, and even the idea of streaming everything from the cloud lingering in the shadows, it's easy to see why publishers like New Blood are urging everyone to push back in an attempt to course-correct.

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Nvidia recently unveiled its upcoming DLSS 5 technology with a controversial showcase of the AI-powered "breakthrough" (as the company calls it) in visuals, and it seems Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 lead Daniel Vávra has hope in the image-enhancing tool.

Vávra, co-founder of Warhorse Studios and Kingdom Come: Deliverance director, shares his thoughts on the tech in a new online post. "I can imagine in the future devs will be able to train this tech for [a] particular art style or specific people['s] faces," he writes, "and it might replace expensive raytracing, etc."

Attached is a clip of DLSS 5 in action in Starfield, shown at Nvidia's recent AI conference, with before-and-after transitions from the game.

"This is just a little uncanny beginning," continues Vávra. "No way haters will stop this. It's way more than a soap opera effect every TV has when you turn motion smoothing on."

Well, that's… certainly a take. The Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 head, who is working to turn his RPG into a TV show or movie now, doesn't exactly echo the more popular sentiment across the industry here, though. Many developers have spoken out against the AI tech.

From Baldur's Gate 3 to Palworld devs, folks across the industry have said "we need to push back harder" against what they dub Nvidia's "AI slop" filter. Quite a few players themselves agree, and this can be seen under Vávra's own post here.

"Actually, it's exactly that; even motion smoothing got improved over the years. It's still distracting, and it never won't be," reads one such comment, arguing that the tech won't ever improve enough.

"I personally don't believe that computer-generated imagery will ever pass the sniff test of the uncanny valley." Vávra, unsurprisingly, disagrees – and he responds saying as much: "You are funny. It already did."

Well, I'm not sure I think so myself… but everyone's entitled to their own opinions, I suppose. DLSS 5 is likely set to launch sometime in the fall, so we've got a good few months to go yet before we see how it truly plays out.

I'm not holding my breath, though. I think I've seen enough – the strange Instagram-ification of Grace from Resident Evil Requiem has been seared permanently into my brain… as have the somehow more horrifying Oblivion Remastered NPCs' faces.

Modders are teaming up to make Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 multiplayer a reality with visions for PvP and GTA-style RP, and there's an early playable version already

I'm still recovering from the very concept of DLSS 5 and adding Nvidia gen AI weirdness to the best graphics cards, and I was originally convinced it was an RTX 6090 feature. That's not to say it'd get a pass if announced alongside next-gen GPUs, but now that enthusiast sites like Igor's Lab are sharing similar speculation, I'm more convinced the tech was pushed forward to the here and now.

The article in question covers whether DLSS 5 was originally an RTX 6090 feature, but I want to stress that it's a conversation rather than an official confirmation. Again, I would have aired the same criticisms at Nvidia if it held back its gen AI shenanigans until a next-generation GPU reveal, but highlighting some current facts that hint at the behind-the-scenes thought processes can help illustrate how we got here in the first place.

Igor's Lab pitches the idea that cards like the RTX 5080 are laying the ground for future GPU features, and suggests DLSS 5 is "less of a product launch and more of a placeholder with symbolic significance." This adds up, considering the initial demo was apparently running on two RTX 5090 cards, and while Blackwell GPUs can technically pull it off, the jump from multi-Frame Generation to heavier gen AI elements feels pretty huge.

That begs the question, why would Nvidia decide to push what could be described as a "tech demo" awkwardly onto the stage? The Igor's Lab post suggests that the company "clearly needed a new AI statement in the consumer segment" that ties the GeForce brand with its overarching narratives. I can certainly buy into that as someone who views the whole situation as a bubble, and since the green team is arguably at the core, it'll be continually trying to avoid a pop.

There's also a chance that RTX 60-series GPUs won't show up any time soon, thanks to AI-fuelled component shortages. I do find the idea of Nvidia's next-gen plans being held up by the very tech it's planning to use amusing, and the concept of stretching existing generations isn't shocking, given that whispers of an RTX 3060 comeback are making the rounds.

The takeaway here is that while Nvidia hasn't officially confirmed that DLSS 5 was an RTX 6090 feature, the theory really adds up. Any potential original plans aside, the GPU feature is coming this fall, and if the green team really is trying to maintain a gen AI narrative and gauge consumer interest before going all in with its future-gen Rubin architecture, now is the time to make your feelings known.

Personally, I'll be switching DLSS 5 off on any graphics card that ends up in my gaming PC. Even placing the gen AI nonsense aside, I almost feel like Nvidia is hoping players will beta test a feature that, in another timeline, wouldn't be a thing on RTX 50-series GPUs.

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In what is definitely not an effort to save face after the week of ridicule that followed Nvidia's DLSS 5 makeover of games like Resident Evil Requiem, CEO Jensen Huang now says he doesn't like 'AI slop' either.

Last week, Nvidia announced DLSS 5 – the next evolution of its AI-powered rendering technique – and, as a result, became the industry's main character for the next week. The tech examples showed off the likes of Starfield and Resident Evil Requiem with a yassified AI filter that effectively does the job of engagement-bait accounts on Twitter who post alternative AI slop versions whenever a female character is shown in a video game.

Now, speaking to Lex Fridman, Huang – who previously said critics of the tech are "completely wrong" – changes his tune somewhat, saying, "I think their perspective makes sense and I can see where they’re coming from, because I don’t love AI slop myself." He adds, "You know, all of the AI-generated content increasingly looks similar, and they’re all beautiful, and so I’m empathetic towards what they’re thinking."

He continues, "I think that [detractors] got the impression that the games are gonna come out the way the games are shipped the way they do, and then we’re gonna post-process it," explaining, "DLSS is integrated with the artist, and so it’s about giving the artist the tool of AI, the tool of generative AI. They could decide not to use it."

The tech subsequently inspired ridicule from players, with 'DLSS 5 On' being the big meme of the month, while a number of developers also spoke against the tech, including a Death Stranding 2 developer who put it best: "No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no."

"It’s content-control generative AI" - Nvidia has DLSS'd too close to the sun, and I'm not convinced Jensen Huang will listen to anyone's DLSS 5 AI slop concerns

Rumors have been swirling around an RTX 5070 12GB VRAM refresh for a few weeks now, but new listings from Lenovo itself confirm the boosted card is heading our way. The upgraded GPU is set to replace the 8GB model inside some of the best gaming laptop contenders on the release slate this year, with models from Asus also seemingly supporting the new card.

That comes from reliable hawk-eye Huang514613, who posted some of the first sightings of this boosted RTX 5070 earlier in the year. Between Amazon listings and Lenovo's own product detailings, the refresh looks pretty guaranteed for 2026.

The refreshed board looks to take advantage of the uptake in 3GB chips, loading up the same buses with a total of 12GB RAM rather than the 8GB they could previously hold. Essentially, the slightly larger chip size (3GB vs 2GB used previously) means greater flexibility in how Nvidia squeezes its memory 'modules' onto the bus.

What will it mean in practice? If you're not currently struggling to run your games on an 8GB card, it's not going to mean too much in real life. The RTX 5070 gaming laptops I've tested average at around 133fps in Shadow of the Tomb Raider at max settings in QHD+ (the best mobile GPU upgrade for a gaming laptop and Acer Predator Triton 14 AI review). That's a lighter game that's not going to stress the 8GB card too much.

Something like Cyberpunk 2077, however, is set to put that extra VRAM to work in a far more tangible way. Using the same three machines from the above data set (the Triton, as well as the Razer Blade 14 and Asus ROG Strix G16), the RTX 5070 averages 48fps in this more demanding title. That's where the extra headroom up to 12GB will be able to provide a little more support.

This year's roster of new gaming laptops is facing challenges from all angles. SSDs are tough to find at a solid price, and RAM shortages are driving MSRPs even higher up the ladder. 2026's releases don't have too many new GPUs (aside from this refresh) to sing about, Intel's new processors are more of an iterative update, and OLED screens are holding firm in their specs.

Component shortages already seem to have delayed the full release of many of this year's rigs (I'm normally reviewing the first few machines in the new cohort by now), and we're yet to hear too much about launch prices. It's highly likely these gaming laptops will cost a considerable amount more than last year's, while only providing smaller upgrades from a performance perspective.

Yes, the 12GB upgrade is going to help those who are currently struggling to run more demanding games at 60fps but for those taking things a little slower, it's not going to make a material difference. At least, not enough to warrant the price tags we're expecting to see.

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The DLSS 5 drama continues, as one employee from Nvidia has shared more insight into the technicalities of how the new iteration of the upscaler will work while you're playing games. As many have suspected since the initial reveal video, DLSS 5 isn't actually using your gaming PC's graphical power to enhance, upscale, or render frames differently. In fact, DLSS 5 only uses 2D imagery and motion vectors as an input... so pretty much exactly how an Instagram filter works.

This news comes by way of YouTuber Daniel Owen, who released a video titled "Nvidia answers my DLSS 5 questions" in which he details an email exchange he's had this week with Jacob Freeman, a DLSS Evangelist at Nvidia.

"DLSS 5 only takes the rendered frame and motion vectors as inputs," Freeman said in an email. "Materials are inferred from the rendered frame".

Essentially, that means there isn't anything happening at a deeper engine, rendering level with DLSS 5's image enhancements. It might rely on an Nvidia graphics card to operate, but there's nothing happening while rendering the existing frames of your games with DLSS5 to make them run more smoothly. It's taking cues from the lighting, geometry, fabric, and face models of a video game scene, blending it through a generative AI model, and filtering out a new image based on what the model detects.

This certainly clarifies a few things Nvidia has said this week in response to the DLSS 5 "AI slop" accusations, including the company's CEO Jensen Huang, who said "DLSS 5 fuses controllability of the geometry and textures and everything about the game with generative AI."

When asked more specific questions, Freeman said that in fact, "The underlying geometry is unchanged. Also worth mentioning this is a very early preview of the tech." he said in his email to Owen.

Owen also asked about how one Starfield character in the initial DLSS 5 trailer seemed to have been outright changed by DLSS 5, including hair being rendered where it wasn't in the original game image. "It's painting a 2D picture over the 2D output frame the game actually did... and you won't see the one the game actually made, you'll see the generative AI interpretation of it", Owen observed.

Personally, my biggest concern with DLSS 5, like a lot of video game fans, has been that it seems as though Nvidia outright wants to change the art style and artistic intent of a lot of the games it's showcasing DLSS 5 with. When asked about this, Freeman said:

"Developers will have detailed controls such as intensity and color grading. Artists can use these controls to adjust blending, contrast, saturation, and gamma, and determine where and how enhancements are applied to maintain the game's unique aesthetic."

Owen, talking in response to these questions in his video, talks about the importance of what's not being said in these responses from Nvidia.

Yes, Freeman can say that developers and artists can finetune certain aspects. Essentially, it sounds like developers will have the image adjustments you'd expect from Canva, Instagram, or other services that use image filters. But what he isn't saying here is that game developers will be able to "reprompt" DLSS 5's AI model to enhance things on their own artistic terms. Basically, the way DLSS 5's AI sees and wants to enhance an image seems to be an "on" or "off" job.

"Developers can also mask specific objects or areas to be excluded from enhancement. We continue to talk to developers to understand all the ways they would like to control the technology. Ultimately, we see the NVIDIA DLSS 5 as a tool for them to achieve their artistic vision rather than be limited by the capabilities of traditional real-time rendering," he said.

For more detail, the full video where Owen goes into depth about the questions he asked is linked below.

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Nvidia clearly has a DLSS 5 dilemma on its hands, and I'm absolutely with everyone who thinks the demo looks like AI slop. You really don't have to be a graphics card expert to know that something beyond the suite's usual AI upscaling is tainting the tech, and while Jensen Huang has gone into full "No, it's the children that are wrong" mode and probably won't listen to the feedback coming from every angle, he has at least confirmed some obvious truths.

I'm not remotely surprised that Jensen Huang is kicking back at DLSS 5 concerns, but I am amused at his press briefing responses at GTC 2026. When asked by Tom's Hardware about the criticism, the CEO decided to go full Mr. Skinner meme, saying, "Well, first of all, they're completely wrong," before attempting to downplay the GPU tool backlash in the same tone as a frustrated retail manager.

"The reason for that is because, as I have explained very carefully, DLSS 5 fuses controllability of the geometry and textures and everything about the game with generative AI," explains Huang before stating it "doesn't change the artistic control." The latter is a response to everyone with eyes who thinks Resident Evil Requiem's Grace with DLSS 5 looks nothing like the original character.

Huang isn't really helping build a DLSS 5 defense by mentioning generative AI, as it's that specific tech that's causing upset. In the "photorealistic" demo examples, characters like Grace frankly look like they've been yassified in the worst possible way, with facial elements being warped to fit some sort of beauty standard that's supposed to represent realism.

Rather than addressing the look of DLSS 5, Huang seems more concerned with tackling the notion of choice. "All of that is in the control — direct control — of the game developer," proclaims the CEO. "This is very different than generative AI; it’s content-control generative AI. That’s why we call it neural rendering."

Patronising tone aside, Jensen is confirming two things here. The first is that while there's room for technological pedantry, DLSS 5 does use gen AI to alter graphical elements like faces. It's not just a filter or even a lighting technique similar to Ray Reconstruction; we're talking about geometry that's generated using a model.

Again, I personally didn't need Huang to really confirm that, as the visual results of DLSS 5 reek of gen AI. I'll admit, I'm absolutely not the target audience when it comes to photorealistic games, but upon catching the demo while in bed with the flu, I was instantly asking myself whether the realism was actually in the room with us or if the whole situation was just a fever dream.

Rather than just calling an AI spade an AI spade, I decided to send the DLSS 5 demo to my photographer and film maker friend, Duncan Lorthioir. While I'm fairly confident that Grace Ashcroft just doesn't look like that and that the tool was changing facial features and adding makeup, I wanted some confirmation that the lighting scenario wasn't accurately changing geometry.

In response, Duncan admitted that the DLSS 5 results "may seem more realistic at first glance," but highlighted that there's an "uncanny valley feeling going on." He also highlighted that, based on the lighting environment in the "DLSS 5 on" example, the lighting "should have changed more on the character's face," but instead feels like a "heavily retouched editorial picture."

Am I really shocked that the company at the forefront of generative AI hardware is now trying to use its consumer GPUs to push the tech? No, but I am deeply disappointed that Nvidia is stonewalling the concerns of gaming PC players. Yes, DLSS has historically used AI in Super Sampling and Frame Generation to boost fps, and while even graphical enhancements like Ray Reconstruction can add something to an experience, DLSS 5 will pivot the suite to changing the actual look of games, even if it is being pitched as "optional."

What I will say is that Nvidia fuels its DLSS ambitions based on user stats. Simply put, if it presents a strong number of players who keep DLSS 5 on for games, it will use that to back up its GPU feature decisions. I'm not saying you should nuke the upscaling settings that are helping you hit specific frame rates and provide a smoother experience, but if you are still playing Resident Evil Requiem or any game that first gets the option, switching it off may help get the message across.

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One of my favorite games of all time is Dishonored. Ignoring its amazing sandbox gameplay, exceptional level design, and barrels of charm that make it a joy to play more than 10 years after its release, its art style is one of the things that make it feel truly unique. With the announcement from GTC that DLSS 5 is going to be coming to some of the best graphics cards this fall, I'm very afraid of what it means for games like Dishonored.

DLSS 5 is being met with criticism at every turn so far. It looks like it's going five steps beyond the upscaling we've seen from gaming PC hardware until now, and not in a good way. In fact, it looks like an undeniable generative AI do-over that fundamentally changes the way in-game characters look.

Until now, AI upscaling has been about providing gamers with higher frame rates, but while making games smoother is one thing, trying to make them look "better" is something new entirely. If anything, toggling DLSS on makes your games look worse, but that's the price we've all accepted to unlock better frame rates in an era where game optimization isn't exactly at its peak.

Nvidia's been quick to try and get out ahead of my biggest concern with DLSS 5 - the destruction of art direction:

"Important to note with this technology advance - game developers have full, detailed artistic control over DLSS 5's effects to ensure they maintain their game's unique aesthetic," Nvidia commented on its own YouTube reveal trailer.

"The SDK includes things like intensity, color grading and masking off places where the effect shouldn't be applied. It's not a filter - DLSS 5 inputs the game’s color and motion vectors for each frame into the model, anchoring the output in the source 3D content."

But to be honest, I'm left asking why they'd want to implement any of the changes shown in this trailer. I don't know about you, but there hasn't been a moment in the last decade of gaming when I've thought, "Man, I wish all my video games looked more photorealistic."

Art direction is, in my opinion, the way the soul of a game comes across. Like its sound design and distinct-feeling gameplay, it's what really makes a game feel unique. I love observing the subtleties between the character models in The Last of Us compared to Marvel's Spider-Man. Both have completely different approaches to character animation, but both are capable of telling an excellent story with their chosen direction. You can look at franchises that have been around for ages. Resident Evil, Mario, Zelda, and even Grand Theft Auto - they've all found ways of modernizing their art styles without losing the soul of how their games looked back in the day.

With the explosion of the indie game scene, I've loved that we celebrate any and all art styles today. "Game of the Year" isn't automatically the one with the most "realistic" graphics; that award can go to anything because it's about more than just crafting a lifelike look.

And I think trying to apply a blanket statement to all of these art styles by saying DLSS can now make them look "better" doesn't work. All of those unique bits of visual identity, the way faces look, the way lighting is directed at certain points of the environment, and the way the aesthetics come together have all been put there for a reason. They are, for want of a less blatant term, artistic choices. Even if game developers have control over how it's implemented, DLSS 5 seems to disrupt a lot of that direction.

DLSS 5 seems to be pushing for all games to look photorealistic. Starfield, Resident Evil Requiem, EA Sports UFC, all the games shown in the trailer end up looking exactly the same, their subtle artstyle differences removed in the name of... something?

Ignoring completely that it looks like AI-generated slop, all of the hard work of character and environment artists, all the technical feats of animating facial meshes, all of the detail brought over from motion capture - with DLSS 5, it all fades into the background as Nvidia's new form of upscaling takes over.

There's been so much controversy around any and all use of generative AI in game development lately, but with DLSS support being such a widespread tool in so many games today, I do worry about how this is all going to be implemented. Nvidia says that game devs will have full, detailed artistic control over it, but to what extent? Is DLSS 5 a special opt-in, or will allowing support for DLSS 4.5 for performance boost reasons also mean they have to submit to DLSS 5's visual substitutes?

For the record, this sort of question mark is why I've been wishing that there was less of an emphasis on AI upscaling within modern graphics cards. In my eyes, hardware shouldn't be so reliant on software to make it work to its full capabilities. DLSS isn't something you own and therefore control when you purchase a bit of hardware, so how much do you really own and control your graphics card if it's reliant on upscaling that can change after the purchase has been made? If DLSS 5 causes enough controversy, will game devs stop using it? Will support for it within games then become less widespread? If so, your RTX 50 Series GPU might not be the future-proofed purchase we thought it was.

I'm getting a bit carried away with a potential future, but it's because I'm not sure I like the direction Nvidia is going in right now. It was only a few weeks ago that the brand's CEO said his company "created the modern video game industry". With DLSS 5, I hate to contradict Nvidia's comment on its own video, but it looks like it now wants to recreate it in its own image.

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AMD chose not to dish out a "flagship" Radeon offering that would compete with Nvidia's RTX 5090 for its most recent generation of graphics cards. Sure, the RX 9070 XT is pretty much the stand-in, and sure, there are conversations to be had about what being a "flagship" PC component even means in this day and age. But, like it or not, the best graphics card from AMD this generation isn't trying to pick a fight with Nvidia's top dog.

In an era of civil unrest at the state of modern graphics cards that are too reliant on AI upscaling, though, I started asking myself something.

How does AMD's last-gen flagship square up against the modern suite of current-gen offerings? Years ago now, I reviewed the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX. It was one of the first PC components I got to test out in my time here at GamesRadar+, and it blew my socks off. Amidst a pricing apocalypse, scalping, and Nvidia taking DLSS all the way to the bank, here was an alternative that offered massive 4K native performance with very few compromises.

On paper, this GPU is an absolute monster that stacks up against the 24GB of VRAM found inside the RTX 4090, a card that was honestly designed more for mining crypto than it was for your everyday gamer. In terms of native performance, this thing is still hard for any graphics card to match and, especially with the RTX 50 series relying so heavily on AI upscaling, I wondered if it would still be able to put modern rivals to shame.

Is a last-gen graphics card really going to be worth buying when newer alternatives with ongoing support exist? The RX 7900 XTX isn't part of AMD's current 90 Series lineup, so it doesn't have access to Redstone, the brand's latest iteration of frame generation. But with as much power as it has, does it really need that? My curiosity was piqued, and I wanted to find out how things compared.

Somewhere, somehow, AMD was able to hook me up with an XFX Merc310 Radeon RX 7900 XTX, so I got to work.

Turns out, off-paper, this thing is also a monster. It barely fits inside my Micro-ATX gaming PC. This particular model comes with its own Z-shaped bracket in the box because it really is that bulky. My case and fans combo doesn't even have room for that, but I made things work by using a smaller GPU bracket.

Once I managed to squeeze it into my NZXT H3 Flow case, I got to work. Was nostalgia for a review I did in the early days of this job getting the better of me, or is this graphics card still worth buying in today's PC market?

Performance

Seeing as it's the graphics card I had in my PC before running this experiment, I've made some direct comparisons to the Asus GeForce RTX 5070, but I'm aware there need to be some caveats mentioned here. In some ways, this isn't exactly a fair fight because the 5070 has 12GB of GDDR7 VRAM as opposed to the 7900 XTX's 21GB of GDDR6. In fact, all over the tale of the tape, the RTX 5070 is a much weaker card in terms of native 4K gaming performance, but that might not be such a big problem.

In some ways, the RTX 5070 is the epitome of the current slate of GPU competition from Nvidia. It was originally billed as an RTX 4090 successor (albeit with heavy, heavy influence on AI upscaling power to make that claim valid). But hey, if Nvidia wants that card to be known as a sequel to the RTX 4090, surely it should be able to beat AMD's last-gen 4090 rival?

My first test was more of a personal one, and less of a strict, technical benchmark. As someone with 2,600 hours in Hunt: Showdown, I wanted to see how this 7900 XTX would improve my quality of life in one of the games I play most regularly. With the 5070, playing at 4K, I had to use exclusively low settings and DLSS on balanced or performance to get a stable ~130fps.

I thought maybe a GPU with as much organic power as the 7900 XTX would be able to beat the RTX 5070 with medium settings, but I didn't realise just how big the performance gap was going to be. Using the same "low" settings without any use of AI upscaling through FSR, the 7900 XTX was already maxing out my monitor's 144Hz refresh rate.

In the end, I was able to put settings up to high, and with FSR working on Quality, I'm able to get roughly the same kinds of 143fps frame rates and graphical fidelity I've seen with the NZXT Player Three, which uses an RTX 5080. That's damn impressive for a multiplayer game that's doing a lot of technically demanding stuff through CryEngine.

But onto more formal benchmarks I went. Starting with 3DMark, I saw pretty sizeable leaps in scores from the RTX 5070 I had in my build previously.

In gaming benchmarks, I was surprised by just how sizeable performance boosts were over the RTX 5070 when multiframe generation wasn't in play. In all but one benchmark scenario I carried out across Cyberpunk and Black Myth Wukong, the 7900 XTX handily beat the 5070, and that was without using any frame gen tricks.

Don't get me wrong, MFG is a massive boon in the RTX 5070's favour, and probably something to consider in this day and age when buying a graphics card. But I feel the latency and ghosting that comes from cranking a weaker GPU's frame generation up in demanding games. For that reason, I'd prefer not to need it when playing a demanding game. With a native performing tank like the 7900 XTX, you're not going to subject yourself to that as much.

Seeing as Cyberpunk has essentially been developed for Nvidia cards, I still expected to see some victory for the RTX 5070. That wasn't the case, even with Ray Tracing switched on, which really goes to show how off-base Nvidia was to try to claim the 5070 was an RTX 4090 rival.

If you're on the fence about the specs mismatch between the RTX 5070 and the 7900 XTX, I hear you. While I can't give you benchmark comparisons from my own rig, I can tell you how the 7900XTX squares off against other current-gen GPUs that we've tested in other machines. These won't be quite so reliable as comparisons go, but they'll give you a ballpark.

Against the RTX 5080 (paired with a Ryzen 7 9800X3D) in the NZXT Player Three, scores in 3DMark aren't as bad as I thought they'd be. That rig scored 27,348 in Time Spy, 55,985 in Fire Strike, and 78.13 in Steel Nomad. Fire Strike comparisons there might seem more detached, but Time Spy in particular is a closer race than some might expect.

Where you'd lose out against the RTX 5080 is its higher ceiling with DLSS and multi-frame generation, but then again, that might not be a huge issue if you're not looking to crank up ray tracing for everything you play. On balance, the 7900 XTX's ray tracing benchmark scores in Cyberpunk aren't quite up to the 5080's standards. Again, tested in a different machine, the 5080 achieved 35 fps with Ray Tracing on and no DLSS assistance. But without Ray Tracing, just using 4K, maxed settings, the 7900 XTX was less than one frame per second off the 5080's score of 44 - that's not bad for native 4K performance that's two years behind, architecturally speaking.

I haven't been able to go hands-on with an RX 9070 XT yet, but we do have some benchmarks in our CyberPowerPC Ultra XT3D review. In Time Spy, the 7900 XTX actually outperformed the 9070 XT's score of 25,579. In the other two 3DMark tests, the 9070 XT was just able to sneak past with 51,234 in Fire Strike and 6961 in Steel Nomad.

And in Cyberpunk, results are surprisingly close, which goes to show just how powerful the 9070 XT is despite being a competitor to the RTX 5070 Ti. AMD's newer GPU scored 60fps with 4K, max settings. The 7900 XTX was only 14 frames shy of its younger rival when they were both using FSR (although now with Redstone frame generation, the 9070 will likely have a larger boost). Interestingly, with Ray Tracing and FSR switched on, the 7900 XTX still outperformed the 9070 XT by a matter of 10 frames per second. There's definitely still validity to the 7900 XTX in 2026 compared to its newer competition, but price is where things get tricky.

Price

One thing to note, beyond the raw performance numbers, is something that still wows me to this day.

A graphics card this powerful launched to the tune of $999 / £999. That was in 2022, when these components were still seeing inflated prices thanks to crypto mining and a supply chain shortage. While Nvidia was happy to squeeze the concept of an MSRP into some sort of optical illusion, AMD was still out here offering ridiculous native performance for a price that, while expensive, wasn't as obscene as Nvidia's "suggested" prices at the time.

Granted, getting a hold of an RX 7900XTX today is a bit trickier. There are a few brands that still have stock of this card, and prices for it, if you don't go refurbished or pre-owned, have gotten higher. In any case, things will only get worse from here on out.

From a quick glance at Newegg, US shoppers can get a refurbished Sapphire Pulse 7900 XTX for under MSRP, at $839 if you're willing to go refurbished. If not, I can see the Asus TUF model for $1,260 at Newegg - not bad during a RAMpocalypse where higher VRAM options that are still being manufactured are going to come under fire. A graphics card that's already manufactured, however, might not be so hard to come by at a reasonable price.

7900 XTXs from ASRock, MSI, and Gigabyte are still available at Newegg, but they tend to be above and beyond the price I'd be comfortable recommending at this point in time. I wouldn't pay more for this card than you would for an RTX 5080, which means the cut-off point is likely going to be the $1,350-$1400 mark.

For me, the easy solution if you're not seeing a price you like is to go pre-owned, open box, or refurbished. Pre-owned graphics cards are a lot more viable than pre-owned CPUs or even RAM and storage. Again, the spanner in the works is that the RX 9070 XT might be the more futureproofed option, even if the last-gen beast still wins out in a few places. The 9070 XT will have access to Redstone and future FSR updates, whereas the RX 7900 XTX likely won't get the same love.

It's certainly more difficult to recommend the RTX 5070 off the back of all this testing, especially if you're like me and would much rather have a native performer for 4K gaming as opposed to something that's reliant on DLSS to hit the same kinds of numbers. If you don't mind that so much, you can get an RTX 5070 slightly cheaper for between $600-$700 new. Again, while I would still recommend the 7900 XTX in 2026, I would maybe draw a line when you start to see a 9070 XT for cheaper.

Summing up

The Radeon RX 7900 XTX is every bit the native 4K beast it was when it launched. I'm certainly nostalgic for this graphics card, but I've been pleasantly surprised to see just how it's holding up in 2026. In fact, it makes me yearn for a generation of GPUs we never got. One that didn't rely so much on AI upscaling, and a field of competitors that had native performance at its heart. While I think DLSS and FSR are great tools, I do think reliance on them is spoiling optimization in games today.

Even if buying an RX 7900 XTX in 2026 is only going to be advisable between the pricing nooks and crannies of newer graphics cards, I still think this little case study shows that this GPU deserves some love, not to fade into obscurity as maybe the last AMD flagship we'll see for a while.

We didn't get a true 7900 XTX follow-up this generation, but I hope the 7900 XTX can continue to light the way for the future. It definitely seems as though the approach of native performance per dollar with the 7900 XTX informed the direction of the brand's stand-in flagship, the RX 9070 XT. With high demand and increased sales in the midst of the fake frames controversy, that approach, that legacy from the 7900 XTX, seems like it's paid off.

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While speaking at the Morgan Stanley Media and Telecom Conference this week, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang had some outlandish claims to make about his company's stake in the video game industry. The AI and graphics card giant's CEO said that, thanks to the business's production of GPUs and 3D graphics systems in the best gaming PCs, his brand "created the modern video game industry".

"Computer graphics was used for things like animation movies, of course, at the time that we were founded," Huang started.

"It was during that time where computer graphics was becoming more capable, and we could simulate virtual reality with it, and we applied it to creating a new industry, which did not exist at the time called video games. And so 3D graphics was modernized in my time, consumerized in my time. And the whole video game industry was created in my time," he surmised.

Neglecting the arcade era, a slew of the best retro console contenders, and countless video games made before RTX was even a glint on one of his reflective jackets, he had even more to say:

"It was Nvidia that pulled it all together. The reason why we're so beloved in the video game industry and we're so deep in it still is, in a lot of ways, we created the modern video game industry."

All of this is a pretty astonishing take for the CEO of an AI company to make, especially after over a year of backlash toward its "fake frames" approach to its most recent generation of graphics cards, and when the company's AI arm is a much larger outfit than its GPU manufacturing. But the thing that really made my ears prick up was what came next:

"From the algorithms associated with it, the libraries. In the computer graphics industry without RTX, there would be nothing today. Without our contribution of all the algorithms that goes into all of the game engines, you wouldn't be able to enjoy the type of video games you enjoy today."

It was here that I had to stop, and begrudgingly agree with Huang's sentiments, albeit not in the way he likely wanted me to. Although he's blatantly ignoring the tireless work of game developers who spend their lives creating the exceptional video games we have access to today, he does have a point.

So much of modern video game performance these days is dictated by whether or not one has support for Nvidia DLSS, AMD FSR, or Intel XeSS. AI upscaling is a huge way for people to unlock higher frame rates on their gaming PCs and consoles. Without it, even Nvidia's most up-to-date hardware, like the RTX 5070, can't run games like Cyberpunk 2077 (which came out over five years ago) in 4K, with ray tracing at up to 10fps, let alone 60fps.

Yes, games have become a lot more technically demanding, to the point where hardware can barely keep up with their demands, but isn't it then up to the hardware brands to try and match the software's speeds with components that can actually run them? The best CPUs feel like they've kept up with innovations in architecture and engineering. The best RAM for gaming and the best SSDs for gaming have arguably become faster than they need to be for gaming tasks, but graphics cards are the ironic bottleneck of the gaming hardware market.

Nvidia's answer to this complex issue was leaning more heavily into AI upscaling, and it's now developed such an advanced form of it with multi-frame generation that it's really the thing you're buying one of the brand's GPUs for. It's essentially a cheat code for better performance without needing to spend ages in the settings menus of your favorite games, but it's a software fix, not a hardware one.

I can't imagine how helpful a tool that is for game developers too, because instead of spending months polishing a game before release to make sure it performs well enough not to be review bombed, all they need to do is secure some DLSS support, and their game will run well for a large swath of players.

But it's here where I stop agreeing with Huang's sentiments. Nvidia certainly created the current status quo in graphical performance, but maybe we should be pointing the finger, not giving thanks.

Games have always been computationally demanding. There were games on the PS2 (which, this week, turned 26 years old) and before, that were doing extremely technically demanding things with physics and graphics systems. There were 3D graphics that had never been seen before in games like Shadow of the Colossus, GTA: San Andreas, and even the Burnout titles. Those games were demanding, but they were made to run on the PS2 because that was the hardware people had access to.

Games today aren't optimized like they used to be. The industry (which Nvidia certainly didn't create) was functioning just fine without the algorithms Jensen Huang was alluding to. The first 3D-capable GPU was the 3Dfx Voodoo Graphics in the mid-90s; Nvidia conceptualized the modern graphics card and gave life to more 3D graphical rendering power for game developers.

Yes, modern games are eons above PS2 ones in terms of the amount of computational power they need, but back in the day, game performance didn't rely on some Nvidia-flavored secret sauce to run smoothly. It feels to me more and more these days, as someone who reviews all sorts of gaming PCs and components, that games are now made for hardware that doesn't actually exist. It's like we've all accepted that it's okay for Nvidia's upscaling to put a bandaid over the wound.

How many PC ports have arrived in recent years that have immediately shocked paying customers with poor performance on even the most advanced hardware? High Guard is a very recent example, but I'm sure you'll remember the performance woes of Monster Hunter Wilds, Jedi Survivor, or Sony's ports of The Last of Us Part I and II on PC. Poor performance is everywhere today, but so long as you can flick a switch with DLSS or FSR and still see a higher frame rate, it's alright.

I don't mean this to sound like a slight at game developers, because the truth is that they're trying to cater to so many different types of hardware while making their game stand out in a highly competitive and oversaturated market. It's not like the old days when they could really get to know a few specific bits of hardware and design games directly for them. Not to mention, they're working against demands from publishers, friction with modern engines, and limited budgets, especially in smaller indie teams.

I take issue with Nvidia, not game developers. I take issue with Huang claiming that it "created" the modern video games industry and saying that without its prohibitively expensive technology, nobody would be able to play them.

This brand has arguably created that issue by not manufacturing consumer hardware that can keep up with the industry's demands. Instead, it created a cure-all in DLSS that's exclusive to its platforms, and then hiked the price of that cure-all so that gamers accept that it's the norm to pay for hardware that's really just a ticket to AI upscaling software.

If we were to review graphics cards on a purely hardware level, we would see Nvidia's GPUs unable to achieve a native 4K30fps while costing massively inflated prices. How would that sound: "3/10, the contemporary equivalent of not being able to run Crysis."

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"The next era of PC performance will be defined not by more compute, but by memory scale", begins a new blog post from former creator of the best RAM for gaming, Micron.

The blog post really begins as it means to go on, and by that I mean, it's horrifically tone-deaf. For context, we're in the middle of a global RAM shortage, and about two months ago, Micron decided to shut down its consumer brand, Crucial, meaning gamers and PC builders now have even fewer products to try and get their hands on.

The blog post, entitled "The new performance bottleneck: How more GPU memory unlocks next-gen gaming and AI PCs," essentially shines a light on the importance of memory for consumers who are trying to get true next-generation performance out of their machines. It talks about Micron's latest evolution of GDDR7 VRAM density and bandwidth in the best graphics cards, and it's pretty much Micron admitting that RAM and VRAM are going to be pivotal for the best gaming PCs going forward:

"Memory capacity and efficiency now determine how smoothly a system can deliver immersive gameplay, intelligent creation tools, and real time simulation, making memory a foundational enabler of next generation visual computing," the blog post summizes.

If you were in any doubt about how screwed up the current memory demand situation is, it's being heavily speculated that when Nvidia launches its next generation of graphics cards, they won't even be supplying the VRAM for them for board partners (Asus, Gigabyte, PNY, MSI, and other companies who manufacutre GPUs) to sell onward to consumers. That will almost certainly mean less VRAM in each new GPU SKU, but it will also mean the cost of manufacturing will land at the door of those smaller brands instead of Nvidia, and consumers will then need to pay even more for a new graphics card.

To be frank, Micron's blog post seems completely deluded and reads more like a B2B appeal to discrete GPU makers to use its VRAM over Samsung and SK Hynix. For us consumers, it's talking about a future that no one will be able to afford, given the current climate: "Micron’s new 24Gb density enables up to 96GB of graphics memory, giving GPUs significantly more space for high-resolution textures, expansive worlds, and advanced visual effects", it continues.

Again, just to pull our feet back down to earth before we start dreaming up a reality where 96GB of VRAM is anywhere close to a standard for graphics cards, let me put things in context. The RTX 5080, one of Nvidia's highest-end GPUs from this generation, only has 16GB of GDDR7 VRAM. The RTX 5070 mid-ranger came under so much controversy for only having 12GB. The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX and RTX 4090 came out before all of that and went extremely gungho for native performance. They only have 24GB of VRAM.

In its latest range of 50 Series GPUs, Nvidia made it seem like it was fighting tooth and nail to part with as little VRAM as possible, which resulted in an emphasis on DLSS upscaling, anger over "fake frames", and a lot of disgruntled PC builders switching to AMD graphics cards.

In other words, the thought of a GPU that uses even 30GB of VRAM is laughable on its own, and that's before you take into account that this is being dreamed up by Micron, the brand that abandoned 30 years' worth of consumer loyalty to make a quick buck building data centers for AI companies.

And none of that mentions the other elephant in the room, which is that hardly any games today actually utilize that sort of VRAM. Maybe they would if the majority of game optimization today wasn't ignored in favor of AI upscaling slapping a bandage over performance issues, but that isn't the case. Most games today are horrendously optimized for PC, and my personal take is that it's because DLSS and FSR are a much less costly way to ensure a game runs well without the need for launch delays and polish time for game devs.

But Micron doesn't seem to realize that: "To keep these visual pipelines running efficiently, the memory subsystem must deliver data rapidly and consistently," the blog post says. Yes, Micron, couldn't agree more, but even in an ideal world where Nvidia wants to give us more native performance, who is going to make that memory for consumers while you're busy servicing AI companies?

Micron seems to be particularly idealistic about the future of computing technology. The other week, another Micron blog post detailed that the company is working on producing the world's first Gen 6 SSD. Of course, this is only aimed at AI data centers for now. I've reviewed multiple Gen 5 SSDs, and for years, those have still been pointlessly fast (and expensive) for the majority of applications and games. We're not even close to that type of storage being the norm for consumers yet, and Crucial seems intent on moving onto the next big thing.

Well, Micron, it's nice to dream, but as someone currently covering a memory shortage which likely won't be going away for the next three years, I'd suggest we maybe keep expectations a bit more down to earth as to not incite gamer rage.

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As a horror game veteran, I was fully aware that Resident Evil Requiem would rely on lighting. That's very much the case for the modern incarnation of the series as a whole, but as someone who still finds PS1 classics suitably atmospheric to this day, I figured I wouldn't be fussed with trying ray tracing. It's safe to say I now feel like a Jill sandwich, as after trying the ninth zombie romp with Nvidia DLSS Ray Reconstruction enabled, I'm still feeling pretty unsettled.

Yes, I review the best graphics cards, but I wasn't really gunning to play Resident Evil Requiem with blistering specs. In the past, I've been left slightly disillusioned by effects like ray tracing, especially given the performance tax they traditionally come with. Slowly, but surely, tricks like Ray Reconstruction, paired with Nvidia's DLSS 4.5 frame rate boosting suite of upscaling tricks, have managed to convince me that it can add more than visual showboating, and it helps Capcom's latest blood-curdling caper bring creepier vibes to the table.

I've certainly put DLSS and Ray Reconstruction under the lens before, and it's not even my first ray-tracing-enhancing horror rodeo since I examined Alan Wake 2 during the RTX 40-series. It's safe to say the tech has come a long way in adding elevated lighting effects, and Resident Evil Requiem takes full advantage of adding a wretched sense of realism.

Slick lighting in seemingly safe streets

Requiem's intro and setup are arguably the perfect stage for a Ray Reconstruction demo. Before Capcom gleefully throws you into the usual dingy Resi corridors, it places you in the "normal" grimy streets with plenty of safer light sources to appreciate. The hustle and bustle of cars, drenched pedestrians with their umbrellas, and wet concrete all provide a visual taster for what Nvidia's tech will do for the existing ray tracing techniques, and everything looks noticeably more believable with the option switched on.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying native ray tracing effects are bad in any way, but path tracing with ray reconstruction at its back really leaves an impression. Subtle details like the way light reflects off cars from the bridge rafters above, while the side windows catch the neon glow of restaurants and shops, all contribute to immersion, and the DLSS package helps improve beam accuracy, clarity, and simulation stability.

Sometimes it takes using Ray Reconstruction for a bit before fully appreciating what it adds. After walking through the streets as Grace, I decided to Groundhog Day myself in the usual benchmarking fashion and have a look around. I instantly noticed that lighting would bend, move, and jitter in a way I'd expect from a typical ray-traced game, whereas I'd previously been enjoying results that, in hindsight, felt more like an animated movie.

Do video games have to feel almost like cinema? There's a whole debate to be had there, but Path Tracing and Ray Reconstruction have a lot to prove in immersive horrors like Resident Evil Requiem. The more you can trick your brain into believing you're traversing what is about to become an absolute nightmare scenario, the better, and it's safe to say that tailing a lady and appreciating how realistic the reflections on her umbrella look is a neat way of doing that before reaching the presumably wretched Wrenwood Hotel.

Reflections and trepidation

It's easy to assume that effects like ray tracing and path tracing are only beneficial in well-lit scenarios. I've trekked around too many virtual haunted hovels and menacing mansions to know that's not remotely the case, and the way light bounces around Requiem's Wrenwood Hotel really completes the "oh no" vibe Capcom is naturally aiming for.

Ultimately, success boils down to how limited light sources are represented in dark scenarios. In Grace's unfortunate case, that means her flashlight and whatever cracks of light manage to creep in through dirty and boarded windows, and Path Tracing can completely change how both are represented.

Something I've found with traditional ray tracing is that light can move in a way that trains you to expect weird movement out of the corner of your eye. If a source reflects in a way that feels slightly unnatural, for example, you're more likely to assume there isn't something bitey secretly lurking behind that innocent kitchen unit, whereas when you become accustomed to accurate realism, danger feels imminent.

In this regard, Path Tracing aids with two things: maintaining the accurate structure and pattern of light and blending things in with clarity. Tiny details like the way your flashlight pierces off a chrome bar tap or daylight glowing through a sheer curtain with a ghoulie potentially waiting to pull a reverse Houdini will set fear levels, and Ray Reconstruction cements the right vibe.

Keep in mind I'm talking about the very beginnings of Requiem here, before the Wrenwood Hotel becomes anything but anything but hospitibale. I fully believe that what your eyes experience before the inevitable jump scares and chases matters completely, and nailing the accuracy of even the smallest beams of light and their resulting shadows is key.

Ray Reconstruction still matters during the action

Let me hit pause on how Ray Reconstruction enhances Grace's nightmare, as Requiem plays with genres a little. When playing as Leon, you're plunged back into a Resident Evil 4 kind of romp, and I foolishly thought I'd have less time to appreciate clever lighting tricks.

Yet, it turns out that Path Tracing does help add horrible spice to Leon's third-person encounters. The character's debut does take place on the same urban streets as the intro, so those previous reflections and effects are still present. It's the context that then helps the feature contribute differently, with one of my favorite instances being the way aggressive, astigmatism-triggering, car headlights wrap around a freshly infected civilian, transforming them into a silhouette framed by eerie, accurate glow.

Traditional ray tracing, or even a lack thereof, could completely misrepresent what this very quick visual encounter is meant to look like. For me personally, I feel like the tech helps give the moment the same vibe as that iconic moment where we meet the iconic "turning around zombie" in the 1996 classic, even though it wasn't a scripted cut scene.

Light isn't always your friend

Okay, let's circle back to Grace's first-person nightmare, as Requiem continues to leverage lighting and Ray Construction after the hotel incident. It lends itself directly to 3D effects that help some of the game's gorgeous details pop, like the 3D cherub door motifs that are totally par for the course in a Resi romp, but there are so many other subtle enhancements that left me feeling unexpectedly unsettled after my play session.

Resident Evil is a game where you're absolutely going to be stalked at some point, and it's really just a question of when. Perhaps it's this knowledge that made me more susceptible to some of Capcom's background red hearings, and while I'm usually resistant to flinching, I reckon the Ray Reconstruction effects helped smash my usual unshakable horror resilience.

Largely, it was how props are portrayed that caused me to crumble slightly. It's potentially not supposed to be an actual jumpscare, but there's a specific instance with lighting help pull off one of those "the jacket on my chair is now a threat" scenarios you'd experience in your bedroom when you're ten. I'd usually dive headfirst into rooms like this just for the thrill, but the lighting felt so real that I really didn't fancy fooling around and finding out before finding my own handheld light source to replace my flashlight (because that's naturally missing now, duh).

Upon finding a Zippo lighter stashed in another room, I returned to that dreaded room, only to find that the proverbial monster in the closet was a coatrack, lab coat, and teddy bear combo. You'd think this would calm my nerves, but the accurate flicker of the handheld flame made what I then could see was a child's playroom, all the more frightening, whereas I feel like the little hessian monkey hiding among the clutter wouldn't have been absolutely unnerving enveloped in a less realistic glow.

No, Path Tracing and Ray Reconstruction aren't directly responsible for Capcom's "corner of your eye" trickery, but it does help elevate it. Again, it comes down to training your psyche into seeing and believing, and it means that all the accurate reflections and shadows register as potential threats rather than just movement-based visual effects. The added depth, clarity, and representation all feed into the situational dread that will keep you on edge, and it's all a level of accuracy that helps justify opting to play on a PC and using DLSS.

Before I touch on some figures, I want to reflect on some potential cons. As far as DLSS 4.5 has come, the visuals still aren't completely immune to scaling artefacts. What I will say is that the very minor quirks I did come across, like slightly blurry text on police tape on approach, the drawbacks seemed to be tied more to the Super Sampling side of things, rather than Multi-Frame Generation. I also found that some slight jitters only appeared while testing without Ray Reconstruction, so the feature actually feels like a remedy.

Do you have to trade frame rate for frights?

I had a blast starting my Resident Evil Requiem playthrough using an Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080, and it's safe to say effects like Path Tracing need a GPU with oomph. Naturally, if you want to play Capcom's latest eerie escapade, you'll need to leverage fps boosting tools like DLSS 4.5 and Multi-Frame Generation, and the game does demonstrate why you'd want to crank the settings up

On average, I was hitting around 200fps at 4K ultra settings with Path Tracing on using Multi-Frame Generation x4. That figure is frankly bananas, and more than comfortable enough to satiate some of the best gaming monitors with higher refresh rates. Keep in mind that the lighting techniques are enough to make even the last-gen GeForce RTX 4090 sweat, so DLSS is more or less a gateway to an otherwise hard-to-pull-off ray tracing experience.

Naturally, you've got other tools like Nvidia Reflex working in conjunction to keep latency and other caveats to a minimum. I wasn't able to sniff out any notable lag, but if you would rather dial things down to vanilla x2 frame generation, that theoretically matches the abilities of cards like the AMD Radeon RX 9070, you're still looking at around 120fps with path tracing on. That's more than enough frames to satiate most players, and while I've yet to test different tiers of GPU, there's certainly room to boost using something like a GeForce RTX 5070 either by playing at 1440p or tweaking some other settings.

Now that our Resident Evil Requiem review is live, I'm going to be testing Resident Evil Requiem on everything from the best gaming handhelds to other GPUs. If my first few hours have taught me anything, though, it's that features like Ray Reconstruction are what will likely draw me to more horror games on PC in the future, especially if it continues to add a delightfully horrid layer of realism.

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It's a question I'm asked every time I tell someone I review gaming laptops for a living; are they worth it? Does that extra degree of portability maintain its value when up against more powerful, upgradeable gaming PC towers? My career so far has been spent finding the best gaming laptops for all kinds of use-cases, so of course I think they're worth it. But that might change in 2026.

Intel's Panther Lake laptops aren't going to wipe Razer, Asus, Lenovo, and MSI's top flagships off the shelves. They might not even trouble the mid-range. But for the everyday player who just wants to be able to play their favorite games at the end of a workday without investing in a second device? Things are starting to look far more interesting this year.

The CES showfloor had business laptops like the Lenovo IdeaPad Pro 5 running Cyberpunk 2077, and doing pretty damn well. With Intel ARC B390 taking over the pictures, many came away impressed with the chip's 1080p handling. The B390 is equipped with full DirectX 12 Ultimate support for hardware-level ray tracing, with 1,536 shader cores and 48 TMUs. That ain't your mother's integrated graphics.

With Panther Lake, AMD's upcoming Gorgon Point, and rumors of Nvidia's N1X swirling, 2026 looks to be the year of the system-on-chip gaming laptop. And that means it doesn't need to be a gaming laptop at all.

After all, these demos are happening on workhorse business machines that traditionally cost far less than the best Alienware laptops or the best Razer laptops. At launch, it's likely these SoC machines are still going to cost a pretty penny - as all new tech tends to. As time goes on, Intel and AMD outfit cheaper machines with their fancy integrated graphics, and the tech underneath grows more efficient, things could change for this entry-level market. 2026 is the first year I've had a serious pause for thought when considering the value of a traditional, dedicated GPU-slogging gaming laptop.

The demand is there. Alienware itself is launching a new ultra-slimline gaming laptop this year, after generations of chunky monsters took over from the super premium X-range. Machines like the Razer Blade 14 and Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 have been slimming their waistlines with every new iteration. Gaming laptops that keep their portability without sacrificing current-gen gaming chops are growing in popularity, and the tech (whether that be the more efficient RTX 50-Series or new SoC systems) is supporting it.

The big guns have nothing to worry about

It's not going to be the MSI Raider A18 HX A9W or the Asus ROG Strix Scar 18 that worries about the introduction of svelte SoC integrated graphics. These RTX 5090-toting powerhouses will laugh in the face of David. Instead, it's the MSI Katana or Lenovo LOQ that should be thinking about its pricing and positioning.

Chunky, budget-friendly gaming laptops that prioritize squeezing the latest RTX 50-class or 60-class into as cheap a chassis as possible are the ones on the back foot. When the Lenovo IdeaPad can perform at the same level with a brighter screen, slimmer chassis, and slicker design, things are going to get interesting.

A while to wait yet

These cheaper rigs aren't going to be wiped out overnight. It's going to be a slow burn - one likely slowed further by shortages in the market. In 2026, an Intel, AMD, or Nvidia SoC laptop is likely going to cost more than a comparable 'traditional' gaming laptop. That's just the way these things work.

But I expect the scales will tip at some point. Whether that's in two years, four years, or six years (or whether some other global shortage extends that wait time), there will come a day when we're using integrated graphics without a second thought. It won't be to run the heaviest games and their top settings, it might not even be to get the most reliable experience, but it will be possible and - dare I say it in this spec and benchmark-filled warzone - enjoyable.

Where does that leave gaming laptops? For the foreseeable future, these dedicated rigs are still going to be worth it. Once entry-level value tips in the favor of integrated options, though, dedicated GPUs might only make sense for the most discerning of PC players among us.

Or it could all fall flat on its face. It's 2026, after all.

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If your current PC upgrade plans revolve around waiting for new Nvidia RTX 6000 graphics cards, I've got bad news for you. While the company's current release cadence would point towards a new generation of GPUs in 2027, rumours are already suggesting 60-series models won't happen until 2028. At the same time, whispers are pointing towards an April launch for the green team's new DLSS 4.5 Dynamic Multi-Frame Generation tech, and I reckon the latest AI tool should be what we're talking about instead.

The RTX 60-series rumors come courtesy of The Information, with the publication referencing previous RTX 50 Super series delays (via Reddit). According to the report, "Nvidia managers changed plans" while also delaying the current gen refresh, "without offering a new timeline." As a result, the outlet's source says the situation will "push back the release Nvidia's next gen gaming GPU," which they say was supposed to "enter mass production at the end of 2027."

Simply put, Nvidia's whole timeline has potentially been shunted further into the future, and it's largely thanks to the demands of the AI industry. Component costs and shortages aside, you could say the green team also doesn't have a reason to race towards the next generation, and I've got a sneaking suspicion its upcoming DLSS Dynamic Multi-Frame Generation tricks could be tied to the lack of new GPUs.

Comment from r/nvidia

Announced during CES 2026, Dynamic Multi-Frame Generation is a new side to DLSS 4.5 that can adjust the number of artificial frames situationally. While Nvidia hasn't shared a solid release date yet, Hardwareluxx claims the feature will land in April 2026, accompanied by the new x6 MFG mode that leans even more heavily into AI enhancements.

My current hypothesis is that, rather than tormenting itself with trying to get RTX 50 Super pricing right and then trying to make RTX 6000 cards a thing anytime soon, Nvidia is hoping Dynamic Multi-Frame Generation will satiate its GeForce graphics card fans for now. The latest version of the tool does sound promising since it will only ramp up MFG when your GPU really needs a fps boost, hitting x6 when things get really hairy, but I'm still worried about where the industry is going as a whole.

The new driver-controlled mode does feel like a more logical approach to Multi-Frame Generation, given that it uses refresh rate as a target. Technology like this could ultimately be what makes slideshow-style frame rates and stuttering a thing of the past, even on lower-end GPUs handling big jobs, but there's absolutely a reasonable conversation to be had over whether the x6 mode puts too much distance between a native experience and one that critics claim relies on "fake frames."

The main takeaway right now is that new graphics cards probably aren't coming any time soon, and the next release we do see could just be the shelved RTX 50 Super cards. The disruptive AI industry, and Nvidia's pivot to being an AI company mean the whole PC gaming scene as we know it now needs to re-find its feet and figure out its priorities.

While rivals like AMD are resisting fully embodying features like Multi-Frame Generation for now, Nvidia isn't shy about its intention to make it a default feature. There are absolutely drawbacks, like added latency and visual artefacts, but it feels like the GPU giant's whole strategy is to answer hardware demands with DLSS enhancements.

I'm personally worried that particular rabbit hole leads to a place where my at-home rig is reliant on the same AI tools that are financially locking me out of upgrades, or affording whatever the new Steam Machine price will be, tying into my fears that PC hardware could become something that exists thousands of miles away in a data centre.

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Just a week after Nvidia's N1 and N1X Arm processors were leaked to the gaming laptop world, eagle-eyed listing hunters may have found proof that Lenovo is jumping on the chiplet bandwagon. A series of 'supported' models listed on the Lenovo Legion Space support page points to at least one machine geared up with AMD's Strix Halo architecture, alongside previously rumored Nvidia N1X Arm models.

The spot comes from Twitter user Huang514613, who posted a screenshot of the supposed listing on January 23 before it was picked up by others. The 'ASH' portion of that Legion name is telling.

The best gaming laptops get their names in different ways, but Lenovo uses the same format for each release. It's why the previously spotted Legion 7 15N1X11 raised its own eyebrows. Lenovo goes 'model - class - size - processor' and it's the latter that we're concerned about here.

That N1X all but confirmed Nvidia's role in Lenovo's next batch of rigs and now AMD has been sighted in the same outfit.

The Legion 7 15ASH11 follows the same naming conventions; with 'A' representing AMD the same as 'I' counts as Intel elsewhere. That 'SH', though, is being taken to mean Strix Halo - the brand's x86 APU previously seen in the Asus ROG Flow Z13.

Strix Halo (and its rumored upcoming 'Gorgon Halo' refresh) runs differently to the Arm N1X and N1 from Nvidia, using an x86 architecture but still prioritizing its integrated graphics for slimline machines. It's been exclusive to Asus for some time now, running in the best gaming tablet on the market but it looks like Lenovo want to let this chiplet out of its cage.

These slimmer, lighter machines aren't going to be limited to Nvidia's own rumored drop later in the year, then. It looks like the chiplet style is here to stay and could well carve out its own sector of the market by this time next year.

That's better news for those after an all-in-one work and play device. After all, machines running dedicated graphics cards will always beat these SoC options in a footrace. However, as Arm and other integrated systems continue to mature, those putting portability and efficiency first could well have a much wider pool to choose from in the coming year.

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Rumors of Nvidia's new Arm-based processors have been swirling around the web for years now, but a new report from DigiTimes suggests the debut of these gaming laptop SoCs could be just around the corner.

Suggested to land inside a currently unnamed Dell machine, Nvidia N1 and N1X machines would seek to compete with the best gaming laptops from an efficiency perspective, while still offering solid discrete graphics power.

The DigiTimes Taiwan report states that "the Windows on Arm (WoA) platform NB model using N1X will debut in the first quarter of 2026," with N1X machines set to hit retail shelves in Q2. If they do so, they'll be the brand's first Arm-based rigs, looking to take on Intel's Panther Lake and AMD's Strix Halo systems.

The latter proved the potency of Arm-flavored laptops in the Asus ROG Flow Z13 earlier last year, but with the Nvidia N1X reportedly offering the power of an RTX 5070, Nvidia has its sights set on far greater performance.

A full-fat RTX 5070 threw down a 3D Mark Steel Nomad score of 3,135 in my Razer Blade 14 testing, whereas the AMD Ryzen AI Max 390 inside the ROG Flow tapped out at 1,694.

The news comes just as Windows starts taking its own steps to welcome Arm-based gaming laptops into the fold. The Xbox app is now fully compatible with these systems, with over 85% of games running on the architecture.

Currently, only a Dell machine has been spotted with the Nvidia N1 / N1X chip inside and even that's still but a rumor. Still, the brand announced its new super slimline Alienware laptops at CES (with a promise of more information along the same timescale).

Call me optimistic, call me a dreamer, but Razer was also suspiciously silent on the topic of new Blade laptops at CES as well. Fine, you caught me - I have zero evidence for that, it's just a mustache-twirling coincidence so far.

What will Nvidia N1 / N1X chips mean for your next gaming laptop?

It's likely that Nvidia's arm-processors will take slow steps at the start, rolling out in a handful of slimline machines over the course of 2026. The new systems aren't going to impact those hunting down rip-roaring 18-inchers any time soon, but if you prefer a compact, portable machine that can be used for both work and play it's well worth keeping an eye on how these models perform.

If you're not quite caught up, Arm-based systems keep everything (CPU, GPU etc.) on one 'piece', like the SoCs you'll find in most smartphones and tablets.

That means they can drastically reduce the number of instructions the processor needs to run through, therefore making for a more power efficient system overall. Now they've grown powerful enough to move beyond mobile devices and into gaming laptops and the best gaming handhelds.

For you, though, it means a slimmer and lighter gaming laptop. It's unlikely we'll see too many battery advantages, as Nvidia could well opt instead to push as much power as it can (rather than leaning into the natural efficiency benefits). Essentially, your next gaming laptop could be thinner than a Razer Blade and more powerful than Asus's tablet.

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I'm hunting down all the best Razer laptops and sniffing around the best Asus gaming laptops. Or, if you're after something more substantial check out the best gaming PCs on the market.

It's hard to believe that it's been a whole year since Jensen Huang came out at last year's CES to announce the RTX 50 Series GPUs. There's been major backlash against the AI super-giant's approach to this current generation of graphics computing, as it became clear that AI frame generation (which has more recently been dubbed "fake frames") was a much bigger priority than offering value for money with hardware power consumers can truly own in their gaming PC.

At CES this year, gamers didn't need to sit through Jensen Huang's AI-dominated, shiny jacket keynote speech to get the two minutes' worth of graphics card news they were hoping for. A separate community update for the brand's gaming arm was posted to YouTube. The main draw this year is an almost AMD-flavoured move that supplies a quality-of-life update for all RTX GPU owners.

An update to Nvidia's DLSS upscaling tech, called DLSS 4.5, is available now, and it brings with it an update to the visual fidelity you can expect while boosting the frame rate of your games.

"We have dramatically improved super resolution with a new second-gen transformer model, and we've expanded the capabilities of Multi Frame Generation," said Bryan Catanzaro, VP of Applied Deep Learning Research at Nvidia.

Talking about DLSS 4.5, he said, "These improvements make super resolution performance and ultra performance mode so much better. It has superior anti-aliasing for smoother edges, clearer gameplay even with fast-moving objects, and improved temporal stability from frame to frame."

Essentially, the image quality when using these DLSS settings looks like it has less noise, fewer jaggy edges, and a more palatable look overall.

The fact this update is coming to all RTX GPU owners feels akin to AMD making FSR available on all GPUs and making it available on a driver level, even for unsupported games. While this is a really great quality of life for folks with older GPUs who are mainly using the performance and ultra performance DLSS settings, I'm not sure it's the gesture of good faith a lot of agitated PC gamers were hoping for.

As multi-frame generation also gets a big boost with DLSS 4.5, with a dynamic frame generation that balances out your boosted frame rate in line with your display, I do wish Nvidia had focused more on the issues with using this type of upscaling tech.

When I've played with higher 4x frame-gen settings turned on, not only is the image quality worse, but a floaty, uncomfortable degree of latency starts to become noticeable. Remember, this is supposedly one of the big selling points of Nvidia's 50 Series GPUs - you can tell why people aren't too happy.

Nvidia Reflex, the brand's way of combating the latency that comes with upscaling, doesn't feel like it's being given the same attention as the frame boosting tech is. Reflex originally launched in 2020, but it's never felt more vital to RTX owners than it does now, and with an updated 6x MFG (multi-frame generation) to contend with, it feels like it's going to struggle to keep up.

I know everyone's setups demand different things, but I would much rather have had a DLSS 4.5 boost from CES 2026 that focused on minimizing system latency when using the latest upscaling suite, rather than this one, which will likely make it worse.

In fact, in one side-by-side comparison Nvidia showed of Black Myth Wukong, DLSS 4 is shown producing 185fps using MFG 4x, and DLSS 4.5 using MFG 6x produces 245fps, but with 53ms of latency. I understand in real-time, that's not a lot, but it does pretty much confirm what I'm talking about. It doesn't feel like Nvidia is concentrating on the reasons why using this ultra-powerful form of AI upscaling tech doesn't feel as good as natively produced frames.

Of course, I haven't had time to test out the latest round of DLSS updates for myself yet, so I'm hoping the feeling of using MFG is balancing out now that Nvidia has had another year to train the upscaler.

Dynamic Frame Gen will also arrive later this year, and goes hand-in-hand with that new 6x total multiplier when using MFG. My hope is that this helps to balance out the bigger spikes of frames and latency, but again, it does seem strange that a Reflex 2 hasn't been properly thrown out to counter some of the bad press Nvidia's "fake frames" have built up in the last year.

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PNY has announced a new range of dual-slot graphics cards today at CES 2026, and anyone who prefers a gaming PC that they can actually fit on top of a desk should take note. This brand's latest versions of the RTX 5070, RTX 5070 Ti, and RTX 5080 are slim models, and it feels like they're finally making good on one of the forgotten promises of this family of graphics cards.

As you get into the higher-end GPU market, you usually need to accept that you're going to have less space in your PC. It's generally the case that the more power in a graphics card, the more cooling it needs, the larger the PCB board within, and the higher the likelihood you'll need a bracket to keep it from slowly destroying your gaming PC's motherboard. PNY's new Dual-Slot slim models of Nvidia's higher-end range bucks that trend though, packing all of the same gaming power and upscaling tricks into a more compact form-factor.

For someone like me, who prefers to play around with compact Micro ATX and ITX builds, these GPUs are really appealing. The one downside to having a smaller gaming PC is that you often find yourself snookered with what parts you can choose for it, simply due to motherboard limitations and less case real estate. Right now, for example, I'm testing out a Radeon RX 7900 XTX as well as NZXT's latest performance fans, which have a thicker frame than most case fans these days. With both of those combined in an NZXT H3 Flow case, I have literally no run-off space between them, so things look a bit cramped.

With PNY's new compact GPUs, PC builders like me wouldn't need to feel unable to choose the almighty power of the RTX 5080, for example, while other brands' versions of it, like the Gigabyte model I found in the NZXT Player Three, would be harder to squeeze into a smaller case like mine.

To be exact, PNY's new RTX 5080 has dimensions of 11.8”x 5.9”x 1.6” (300 x 150 x 40mm), its RTX 5070 Ti is 11.4” x 5.9” x 1.6”(290 x 150 x 40mm), and its RTX 5070 is only 11.4” x 5.0” x 1.6”(290 x 128 x 40mm). At least in the length department, these don't cut off too much in terms of practical space from the 360mm standard, a lot of high-end GPUs, but 300mm length is still pretty good for an RTX 5080. Besides, what's really impressive here is the lack of width and height, which will make cramming it in an ITX case a lot easier.

I'm a little disappointed we haven't seen more compact variants of the latest Blackwell GPUs. When Jensen Huang came out to announce the RTX 50 Series, he made a point to focus on how compact the AI supergiant had managed to keep even the flagship RTX 5090 compared to the behemoth that was the GeForce RTX 4090. The Founders Edition 50 Series cards were pretty scaled back in terms of size, but board partners haven't stuck to that selling point for the most part, and the majority of the RTX 50 series options you'll find on the shelves are about the same size as the 40 series.

Of course, the biggest barrier to keeping modern graphics cards on the smaller side is cooling, and PNY says it's overhauled its thermal design using two large 120mm fans (which is the same size of fan you find in the front of most PC cases) on each of its new slimline models. These cards have an aluminium backplate and a larger vapor chamber, but PNY also notes that using its VelocityX Software, you'll be able to optimize cooling and fan settings, especially if the noise gets too loud.

These new GPUs will reportedly be available in both standard and overclocked form in February 2026, with PNY naming Best Buy and Amazon as shopping sources specifically, but with other retailers said to be in play as well. There aren't any price details about these, although I'd expect overclocked variants to go over MSRP as they usually do. Given the quirky appeal of these models, it wouldn't surprise me if the initial stock of these cards disappears quickly, or if they stretch past Nvidia's suggested pricing.

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Since the new range of Nvidia GPUs launched, I've been watching RTX 5070 gaming PC prices like a hawk. Team Green may have made inaccurate claims about how this GPU is a cheaper RTX 4090, but the 5070 is still one of the best mid-range options of the new GPU generation, and that's reflected in the cost of the best gaming PCs that house it.

Black Friday gaming PC deals are still technically about a month away, but a few online retailers have already started throwing up Black Friday messaging. Best Buy and Newegg are in the mix, but these early discounts aren't just a flash in the pan to get your attention. I've never seen cheaper prices on RTX 5070 gaming PCs.

The cheapest I've ever seen an RTX 5070 gaming PC drop to is $1,499, which, in fairness, has been a recurring price that a lot of builders have matched throughout the year. There are a fair few 5070 builds at Newegg for that price right now. But even during Prime Day sales in July and October, I didn't see this price beaten (unless it was in a super-cheap PC with an arguably outdated motherboard and processor, which I'd rarely advise).

The HP Omen 35L is already beating that price in a Black Friday deal at Best Buy, which is surprising for a PC from a premium, big-name brand. That Skytech Blaze4 Mini is an absolute showstopper though, because a cost of $1,349.99 saves you $150 on the average price of these machines. It's a shame you don't get liquid cooling for that money, but you do get a DDR5 PC with a great processor and an AM5 motherboard you'll be able to upgrade for years to come.

Part of me is always cautious to recommend you spend your hard-earned cash on deals at this point in the year, especially when bigger and better discounts are right around the corner. With these PCs though, I'm not sure you really need to worry. I would be utterly shocked if we saw RTX 5070 gaming PCs drop below the $1,349 asking price of that Skytech build, and even if another HP Omen 35L with an RTX 5070 GPU inside it gets a further discount, it'll likely not be much more than the $50 saving we're seeing now.

If you don't mind leaning on DLSS pretty heavily for 120+ frame rates when playing in 4K, the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 is a great GPU. Nvidia absolutely shouldn't have put its foot down in marketing to tell people it would give them RTX 4090 performance, because that just isn't true without using the brand's AI frame generation. Even with Reflex + Boost, you may feel a little bit of floaty latency when cranking this up to its highest level.

What's for sure though, is that building your own gaming PC is only going to get more expensive from here on out. Yes, GPUs and CPUs that are already out will get cheaper the further we get from release, but thanks to AI, DDR5 RAM is getting a lot more expensive (and that could hit the cost of SSDs soon, too). For once, buying a prebuilt may actually work out as the fuss-free and more affordable option in the near future.

• Skytech Blaze 4 Mini: $1,349 at Newegg
• HP Omen 35L: $1,449 at Best Buy
• Shop for other RTX 5070 gaming PCs at Newegg

For more Black Friday news, check out some early Black Friday Meta Quest deals, Black Friday gaming chair deals, and Black Friday Secretlab deals.

Hear ye, hear ye! Prime Day GPU deals are actually a thing this year, and it's restoring my faith in graphics card offers. The catch? Well, it's actually Newegg providing the Nvidia price cuts rather than Amazon, whereas Big Deal Days is catering to AMD builds.

The trick with Prime Day GPUs is finding models for under MSRP, and that's way harder than you'd expect. That's largely because custom versions of graphics cards like the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 and AMD Radeon RX 9070 tend to drift from their chip maker's recommended pricing, but Newegg and Amazon are offering restorative discounts.

Both of these cards are down to what I'd call a fair price this Prime Day, but the RTX 5070 is the better deal on paper. That said, there are reasons to go for Nvidia or AMD when it comes to features and AI upscaling, as both companies use a slightly different approach.

For example, if you're purely looking to boost fps and aren't fussed over whether you're gaining "real frames", the RTX 5070 is the way to go. DLSS 4 uses Multi-Frame Generation that can increase average frame rates by 4x, resulting in a massive perceivable performance uplift.

The tool really comes in handy when trying to max out settings while still satiating the best gaming monitors with ridiculous refresh rates, and it's the reason why Nvidia felt like it could claim the RTX 5070 boasts GeForce RTX 4090 performance. Just so you're aware, that's not remotely true when it comes to native performance, but Multi-Frame Generation will help speed things up massively while curbing latency using Nvidia Reflex.

On the AMD side of things, the RX 9070 leans less into AI upscaling with FidelityFX Super Resolution 4 (FSR 4). You're still getting neat Frame Generation tricks, but the card will stick to doubling your fps count. For most of you, this will still be more than enough to get you well over the 60fps sweet spot in most games, but you'll be limited if you have a monstrously high refresh rate monitor.

Where the RX 9070 manages to trump the RTX 5070 is with AI upscaling versatility. Thanks to AMD's driver-level Fluid Motion Frames feature, you can actually turn on Frame Generation in almost every game. This means you don't have to wait for developers to bake in support, in turn giving you the option for boosting performance in older games. Stability and latency will vary based on the game, but it does technically mean you can boost fps in more games with the RDNA 4 card versus Blackwell.

It's worth pointing out, too, that in games like Cyberpunk 2077 and Hitman 3, the RX 9070 actually edges slightly ahead of the RTX 9070 with AI upscaling off. Most of you are going to at least enable Super Resolution where available, but it is impressive to see AMD actually outpace Nvidia here. It still doesn't quite beat the GeForce card when it comes to ray tracing, which has been a common theme throughout the last few generations, but the mid-range RDNA 4 card is still pretty impressive.

Picking either the RX 9070 or RTX 5070 comes down to your desired level of AI assistance. If you just want silly frame rates in most new games, Nvidia's mid-ranger is a safe bet. If you've got a big backlog and don't want to tweak settings to achieve a respectable fps count, the new Radeon card will be more useful.

What I will say is that an Nvidia refresh is very likely on the cards, and we could soon see RTX 5070 Super options arrive to challenge AMD. I suspect such a GeForce GPU would be looking to take on the beefier RX 9070 XT since it has a lead over the green team's current offering, so you may want to either hold off or go for a higher spec card if you're at risk of performance FOMO.

• More graphics cards at Amazon
• Full gaming PCs at Amazon

Looking for more Big Deal Days offers? Swing by Prime Day gaming PC deals for reduced rigs, Prime Day monitor deals for display discounts, and Prime Day Nintendo Switch deals for console options.

Hardware competitors Nvidia and Intel have announced a new and major partnership, with the two companies collaborating on "multiple generations" of hardware that will include consumer products as well as technology for data centers.

In a press release, Nvidia revealed plans to purchase $5 billion worth of Intel's common stock, "subject to customary closing conditions, including required regulatory approvals." This isn't a buyout or takeover, but it is a substantial investment.

Nvidia says its partnership with Intel will see a focus on "seamlessly connecting NVIDIA and Intel architectures using NVIDIA NVLink — integrating the strengths of NVIDIA’s AI and accelerated computing with Intel’s leading CPU technologies and x86 ecosystem to deliver cutting-edge solutions for customers."

For personal computing, the realm of us PC gaming mortals, Intel will "build and offer to the market" x86 SOCs (system-on-chips) that integrate Nvidia GPU chiplets.

"These new x86 RTX SOCs will power a wide range of PCs that demand integration of world-class CPUs and GPUs," Nvidia says. The pitch is about what you'd expect: "Fusing the world's best CPU and GPU to redefine the PC experience," per Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang's comments at a press conference.

The folks constructing data centers, meanwhile, can expect Intel to build "NVIDIA-custom x86 CPUs that NVIDIA will integrate into its AI infrastructure platforms."

AI is, unsurprisingly, a recurring theme of the announcement. Huang argues "AI is powering a new industrial revolution and reinventing every layer of the computing stack." He calls this partnership "historic" and stresses it combines Nvidia's AI and "accelerated computing stack" with Intel's CPUs and "the vast x86 ecosystem," almost like peanut butter and jelly with a few slices of banana.

"We're going to become a very large customer of Intel CPUs," Huang said at a press conference today.

Similarly, Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan writes: "Intel’s leading data center and client computing platforms, combined with our process technology, manufacturing and advanced packaging capabilities, will complement NVIDIA’s AI and accelerated computing leadership to enable new breakthroughs for the industry."

Intel has been falling behind in several processor markets for years, and Nvidia has been banging the AI drum with both hands for some time as well, so in some ways this collaboration comes as no surprise. Just today, Huang argued "general purpose computing has reached its limits," again championing the benefits of accelerated hardware which he reckons "sparked the big bang of artificial intelligence."

This deal will give Intel a shot of investment and, seemingly, a seat on the train that Nvidia has ridden to reach millions of customers. Even so, the processor companies joining hands like this, on a Thursday afternoon, comes as a bit of a shock.

Asked about the $5 billion investment accompanying the partnership, Huang said it is an "incredible investment" and Nvidia is "delighted to be a shareholder," and said "the return on that investment is going to be fantastic."

"It just reflects how excited we are about this partnership," he said. I, too, have been known to drop $5 billion in my excitement.

Intel says "this is fine" to fallen stock prices, tells gamers they can get Battlefield 6 bundled with its hardware for no extra cost.

Gaming PC prices are weird. Although the RTX 5070 graphics card has a higher MSRP than the Radeon RX 9070 ($549 / $499, respectively), prebuilt gaming PCs housing those GPUs aren't reflecting that right now. Call it higher demand for AMD's option, call it manufacturers playing games with prices, call it whatever you want, but if you want a gaming PC that utilizes either card right now, your cheaper bet is Nvidia.

Case in point, this HP Omen 35L at Best Buy costs $1,499.99 at the moment, down from a full price of $1,849.99. I'll grant you that I've been seeing RTX 5070 builds at the $1,499 level since launch, but it's still tricky to find a prebuilt gaming rig with this GPU at anything under $1,600. On the opposite side of the GPU war, I can't find any RX 9070 build that's cheaper. The closest I've found is this Skytech Shadow, which comes in at $1,567.99 at Walmart.

AMD's Radeon RX 9070 has been the blue-eyed boy of the GPU market in 2025 after Nvidia's performance claims about the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 landed flat on their face. It was always going to be the case that this GPU competing with the RTX 4090 would mean some heavy DLSS work, but the limited performance boosts the 5070 offers over the RTX 4070 Super and the lesser RTX 4070 have left a lot of people wanting more for their money.

AMD's 9070 options still require upscaling work at 4K, but they've targeted a more native performance approach, which has won a lot of PC builders over. With lower price tags than the RTX 5070 and 5070 Ti, it's been a refreshing momentum shift in the best graphics card market.

Arguably, both GPUs will give you excellent gaming performance for the cost in 2025, and whether or not you like AI upscaling wizardry from team green or red, both options will require it for the 4K, high frame rate gaming you're probably after.

Both of the PCs I've suggested above sport some great specs elsewhere, but since we've had hands-on experience with the HP Omen 35L, I'm more inclined to recommend it to you.

On specs alone, the two rigs are admittedly very similar. Both harness a 1TB SSD, but the Skytech Shadow actually has less RAM and a slightly weaker processor. For costing more money, I know which one I'd rather have. The HP Omen 35L also has a white chassis, which gives it a more distinct look. I did wish it had an AIO cooler inside it, but this is always something you could upgrade later if you felt it was too loud.

Want to build your own gaming PC?

• CPUs: Discounts from AMD
• GPUs: RTX 50 series GPUs starting at $339
• RAM: 32GB of DDR5 for $89.99

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I'm going to hold your PC gaming hand when I say this - you're not going to get an RTX 5090 graphics card cheap this Prime Day. In truth, I doubt the flagship Blackwell GPU will ever reach an affordable price point, even with discounts, as that failed to happen with the RTX 4090 and its RTX 30-series sibling before it.

That said, there is a custom Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 graphics card down to $2,799.99 from $2,999.99 right now. No, that's not a typo, the offer knocks $300 off the best graphics card contender, and it's still $800 more than its fabled MSRP. Even Amazon isn't willing to call this a Prime Day gaming deal, and I've noticed that it even takes away the "Prime Day Deal" filter on the side on the side of the page when you're browsing GPU offers.

Even just thinking about flagship graphics card prices is giving me a headache, but I'm not willing to let migraine-inducing custom MSRPs get the better of me. Instead, I've fished out three graphics card offers that will actually help you grab a GPU for a little less than usual, ultimately helping you upgrade your rig or build a new PC using offers this Prime Day.

Spoiler - they're all part of the Newegg FantasTech sale rather than Prime Day.

From the bottom of my GPU reviewing heart, I wish I had better graphics cards to share with you. I do think the above offers will help PC builders out there make the best of a bad situation, especially upon discovering Prime Day is allergic to discounting cards.

I feel like the best advice I can give to those of you building a rig from scratch is to actually check out Prime Day PC deals first. Pre-built systems can be your key to getting a graphics card for "cheaper" since some machines will drop further than a single GPU. You'll still have to invest heavily if you're seeking an RTX 5090 build, so keep that in mind if you're shooting for the specs stars.

• View more graphics cards at Amazon
• Acer Nitro Intel Arc B570 | $299.99 $249 at Amazon
• Asus GeForce RTX 5060 Ti | $699.99 $659.99 at Amazon

Looking for more Amazon price cuts? Swing by Prime Day Steam Deck deals and Prime Day Asus ROG Ally deals for handheld savings. You'll want to check out Prime Day monitor deals too if you seek display discounts.

Not everyone’s going to find the RTX 5060 riveting, especially from a specs point of view. But, as someone who was born in the fires of entry-level PC gaming, I’m always keen to see what the most affordable graphics cards can actually do for under $300. It’d be an understatement to say that budget GPUs are hard to find in 2025, so when Nvidia asked if I wanted to try out the cheaper Blackwell GPU ahead of its official launch, I was extremely keen to dive in.

Naturally, I won’t be able to share any RTX 5060 benchmarks or figures ahead of the launch with you. You’ll have to wait for my full review for those vital performance bits, and they will ultimately dictate whether the GeForce card deserves a place at the best graphics card table. I like to spend at least a week testing GPUs across a variety of demanding games to get a proper feel for whether they provide real value. But before I get to that, I want to chat about the few hours I’ve spent with the Blackwell card playing DOOM: The Dark Ages.

Bethesda’s shooter is admittedly living in my head rent-free since ray tracing is baked into its idTech engine. You’d perhaps think that such settings would hold back maximum frame rates dramatically, but the fact that I was able to play Doom the Dark Ages at over 500fps at launch using an RTX 5080 quashes that idea completely. The RTX 5060 is a bit of a different beast since it only boasts 8GB VRAM and is a much more modest GPU, but I can confirm that it does feel pretty nice on my current best gaming monitor pick, the LG UltraGear 32GS95UE-B.

Again, I’ll be sharing plenty of figures in my eventual RTX 5060 review, but since I’m about to sign off for the weekend, allow me to chat about my first few hours with the card. I will eventually be testing the GPU at 1440p and 4K, but since we’re talking about an entry-level model, I’ve kicked things off at 1080p for now. Since I’ve still got high refresh rate monitors on my mind, I’ve also been playing with DLSS 4 Quality Mode and x4 Multi Frame Generation on with Ultra Nightmare settings enabled.

Now, keep in mind that this time last week, I was using an RTX 5080 to hit stupidly high frame rates at 1080p. This time around, I’ve decided I want to see how far the new 60-class GPU can get without dialing back settings, since plenty of players picking this card up are going to be using Full HD displays with pretty high refresh rates. What I’m looking for is whether I can detect a performance difference between the two setups before I even get to benchmarking, as that could support the idea that the RTX 5060 packs a plentiful punch for 1080p players.

Immediately upon landing once again in the Doomslayer’s shoes, it honestly felt like I was still using the RTX 5080. I was using DLSS 4 in ‘Balanced’ mode last time around, in the name of hitting extreme frame rates while preserving fidelity, but making the switch to Quality mode really helps the RTX 5060 pump out textures and effects with the same sort of enthusiasm.

Replaying through the gory shooter’s intro, I wasn’t able to sniff out any notable frame dips or lag compared to my previous playthroughs. That naturally prompted suspicion within me since there’s usually some sort of trade-off when using performance boosting tricks, and that led me to tiptoeing through the same area again in a bid to carefully examine finer details and textures. I’ve witnessed AI upscalers make a mess of intricate lines, mesh fences, and other smaller elements, but even the chains holding lanterns far off in the distance looked pretty defined with x4 MFG on.

I did eventually shield charge past one enemy who looked slightly blurrier than expected for a brief moment. This is something I picked up on when playing on the RTX 5080 with DLSS on, too, so it could be that Multi Frame Generation struggles a bit with more detailed enemies. Would I have noticed this or cared during a normal playthrough? Probably not, but it is a reminder that these tools aren’t completely devoid of caveats.

I am wary that playing at 1080p in 2025 sounds a bit ‘meh’, even if scaling back resolution does mean you can embrace faster panel speeds. Therefore, I’ll be really expecting the RTX 5060 to hold its own at 1440p and 4K, especially if DLSS 4 is on. If playing at full HD is anything to go by, purely on feel, I reckon it’ll be easy enough to hit well over 60fps even in new releases using Multi-Frame Generation.

And, if you’re making the jump from an older card like the RTX 2060 or even the RTX 3060, the performance jump is going to feel pretty wild. I actually used an RTX 3070 rig a few years ago for settings tests and found that 1080p was sometimes a bit much for shooters similar to DOOM: The Dark Ages, so it’s pretty refreshing to find that you can play speedy fps games on a new 60-class card without having to deal with sluggish frame rates, even if DLSS 4 trickery is required.

Whether or not the RTX 5060 will be worth buying fully depends on my eventual benchmarks and other important GPU tests. Spending a couple of hours in DOOM: The Dark Ages is absolutely not enough to determine if a graphics card provides the right level of performance, especially if there’s a significant gap between the sub-$300 card and the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5060 Ti.

That said, I’m feeling optimistic about the RTX 5060 and, while there’s a wider conversation to be had about relying on tools like DLSS 4 to meet minimum specs, I could have happily played through the entirety of the shooter today without feeling any sense of performance FOMO or vibe that something was off.

Put it this way – I have a pal who exclusively uses an RTX 3060 laptop to play everything and never looks at settings or frame rates. When he sees what Nvidia’s $299 GPU can do, I suspect he might end up thinking about building an RTX 5060 PC as an upgrade.

Looking for more ways to play? Swing by the best gaming PCs and best gaming laptops for powerhouse rigs. You'll also want to peek at the best gaming handhelds for super portable options.

DOOM: The Dark Ages is set to unleash hell on plenty of PC builds far and wide, and Nvidia DLSS 4 will be a saving grace. Sure, you might not need the tool to hit decent frame rates if you’re rocking a beefy graphics card like the GeForce RTX 5080, but it can make a massive difference depending on your personal performance preferences. For whatever reason, I decided while playing the ferocious FPS sequel that I wanted to see if I could satiate a 600Hz monitor with ridiculous frame rates and somehow managed to pull it off using Multi-frame generation.

Look, I’m not saying playing DOOM: The Dark Ages at 1080p to boost fps to stupid levels is something you should do. After all, there’s more to single-player shooters than just sheer speed, and Bethesda’s devilishly detailed world of Argent D'Nur is worth experiencing with settings cranked up full. That said, I’m a sucker for a silly specs challenge, and if life (BenQ) gives you 600Hz lemons (the Zowie XL2586X+), you can bet I’m going to make deliciously fast lemonade.

The question now likely circulating your cranium is whether Bethesda’s latest shooter can run at anywhere near the frame rate required to make 600Hz viable. The answer is yes, DOOM: The Dark Ages hits well over 500fps, and I witnessed my frame counters creep above 600fps quite a few times during my initial sessions. The reason it’s possible is ultimately Nvidia DLSS 4, and while playing this way naturally trades fidelity for speed, the results are both remarkably slick and still visually serviceable.

The high frame rate fires of hell

Equipped with Multi-Frame Generation abilities, Reflex, and Ray Reconstruction built in, DOOM: The Dark Ages uses Nvidia’s toolkit as a performance BFG. I’ll let you imagine what the acronym means this time around, but the point I’m getting at is it’s versatile enough to uplift performance to desirable levels where needed while maintaining excellent visuals that aren’t going to look weird compared to native.

I doubt many people will be daft enough to follow in my footsteps and start the game with 4x Mult-Frame Generation on, DLSS Ultra Performance Mode activated, and settings cranked back to low at 1080p. It sort of defeats the versatility of the toolkit, especially since most players will let the Nvidia app do all the optimization work to strike a balance.

So, why am I being silly with settings? Well, as I already spoiled, I’m playing around with the BenQ Zowie XL2586X+, and I’ve got an itch to see if the latest graphics cards can make use of a 600Hz refresh rate. The other reason, though, directly ties into the idea of striking a balance, as I’m eager to push things to the extreme to demonstrate just how much DLSS 4 can make a difference outside of normal proverbial performance boxes.

I fully expected sacrificing fidelity in The Dark Ages to hit higher frame rates to be a visual disaster. Yet, despite hitting a 550fps average, DLSS 4 has helped keep my time as the Doomslayer looking surprisingly detailed. Playing with low settings enabled naturally means things looked scaled back compared to all singing and dancing at 4K, and Ultra Performance Mode, meaning resolutions are technically upscaling from 640 x 360. But, as far as my eyeballs were concerned, I was playing at native 1080p at ridiculous speeds while not having to deal with a pixellated hellscape.

Even in instances where Imps looked a little blurred or pixely, that weirdly paired nicely with The Dark Ages’ old school DOOM vibes. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a drawback of using Super Sampling in general, but there’s something about ripping and tearing at a monstrously high frame rate that, when mixed with lower-res visuals, evokes memories of the original PC shooter. That’s pretty funny considering the OG romp was capped at around 35fps, so I’d say this setup is for longstanding fans who remember the ‘90s version being fast and are craving that vibe from the latest outing.

I’m still making my way through the intro of DOOM: The Dark Ages, but I can’t express enough how satisfying it is playing at 600Hz. I’ve actually been replaying the 2016 version in between playing competitive shooters like Overwatch 2, and it’s hard to ignore the speed difference there since it can’t seem to boost fps beyond 200. It also doesn’t have DLSS 4 baked in, which is key to hitting a frame rate that matters with my current BenQ screen.

I also want to highlight that without Nvidia Reflex, playing The Dark Ages in this manner would likely feel atrocious. It’s all fine and dandy using frame generation to pump out visuals at faster speeds, but latency can completely ruin the actual playing part. When I leap into a bunch of hellspawn with a shotgun, the last thing I want is for it to feel like my blasts to the face are lagging, and Reflex does an admirable job keeping things snappy despite all the AI upscaling activity.

With all that in mind, should you remotely try and play DOOM: The Dark Ages at over 500fps? Well, most of you won’t be doing it on a 600Hz gaming monitor, but since more mainstream options like the LG UltraGear 32GS95UE-B with its dual 4K 240Hz and 1080p 480Hz abilities are a thing, DLSS 4 could help you play with the latter mode enabled and hit the right frame rates. I’m still sort of baffled that it’s even possible, and I can imagine it being ridiculously fun for replays, speed runs, and just having a plain good time roaming the plains of hell.

Rip and tear at 4K

The majority of you diving into DOOM: The Dark Ages on release will be looking to kill the hordes of hell at 4K. So, I naturally fired up the FPS game to see what DLSS 4 could do for us in that department, since even high-end GPUs can struggle with Ultra Nightmare settings enabled.

If you’re aiming for high-end 4K 240Hz performance, you’ll be thrilled to know DLSS 4 helps The Dark Ages reach those heights with no compromise. I was able to don the Doomslayer’s shield and hit a 243fps average easily with 4x Multi-Frame Generation on and Super Sampling set to Balanced.

Keep in mind that The Dark Ages has Ray Tracing baked in, so those frame rates are with fancy lighting switched on. Even with tools with DLSS 4 enabled, I normally expect performance to take a mighty hit. So, the fact that I was able to fulfill top-end UHD monitor specs and still explore Argent D'Nur in all its glory is pretty impressive, especially when it comes to reflections and those finer textural details.

I’m all too aware that DLSS 4’s AI visuals aren’t flawless, and there are usually quirks to be found with upscaling if you know where to look. I normally find that finer textures can end up looking a bit odd during faster-paced gameplay, like when you’re speeding through Night City in Cyberpunk 2077. But, to The Dark Ages’ credit, I wasn’t able to sniff out any symptoms tied to Multi-Frame Generation use in the shooter’s intro, which suggests that the new Transformer model is putting in extra work.

The only real fault I could find with AI upscaling was a slight blur on enemy models during speedy combat. Bear in mind that I cranked the movement speed to 150% specifically to see if motion would affect any textures or result in popping, and you’re not going to immediately notice this if you’re not solely focusing on elements under a metaphorical microscope. Still, it’s worth keeping in mind if you’re very easily annoyed by slight differences, even if native results aren’t worlds apart comparatively.

Slaying system requirements

My DOOM: The Dark Ages tests admittedly take things to extremes, but I think my DLSS 4 experiments are a handy versatility indicator. For some players, hitting the highest frame rates possible at 4K is going to be a priority, but others will be simply looking to hit a sweet spot on cheaper GPUs like the new GeForce RTX 5060 Ti. The ultimate takeaway is that if the latest games wreak system requirement havoc on your machine, graphics card tools like Multi-Frame Generation and Super Sampling can help you either get closer to your personal performance goals or even just help you play at an acceptable frame rate.

I’ll be looking to test more GPUs in 2025 using DOOM: The Dark Ages, and I’m particularly eager to see how the affordable AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT holds up in similar situations. That will include running more releases using high refresh rate monitors, as even though I don’t think many of you will be aiming for 600fps in big 2025 outings, it’s just fun to see if it’s actually possible.

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Serving as the first “entry-level” contender to enter the ring in this generation, the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5060 Ti is a tougher sell than you’d think. It should technically be the GPU suited to most players since it packs a respectable punch at 1080p and can stretch to even 4K with a bit of DLSS assistance. My concern with this particular graphics card is that it’ll potentially end up with both its cheaper siblings and rivals in its price range, which in turn could lead to it being a tertiary option.

The very nature of the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16GB means it already has a tough fight ahead in the best graphics card pit. Don’t get me wrong, it’ll fare better than its 8GB counterpart since its choice of VRAM configuration is going to irk enthusiasts and shoppers making comparisons. But, if you fully believe that GPUs should boast double the memory as a minimum, you’re going to pay at least $429 for the pleasure, and that MSRP only applies if you grab a vanilla variant.

Before you ask, there is no Nvidia GeForce RTX 5060 Ti Founders Edition, so if you want the 16GB card, you’ll be looking at custom models. I’ve been testing the Palit Infinity version for this review that should stick to the green team’s MSRP, but if you’ve ever tried to shop for a new GPU over the past five years, you’ll know that recommended retail prices are never guaranteed. I’d keep that fact to hand as I talk about both this card and any other in 2025, as even if a model comes out swinging, it could end up being bludgeoned by availability and pricing blows.

Specs

It’s getting harder to call 60-class GPUs like the RTX 5060 Ti entry-level, but unless Nvidia eventually releases a 50-class Blackwell segment for desktop, it’s one of the lowest spec cards of the generation. Armed with a GB206 chip, this specific model scales things back with 4,608 CUDA cores, 144 Tensor, and 36 ray tracing units, so a significant drop from what the RTX 5070 is packing.

The important thing to keep in mind is that 60-class GPUs are usually billed as 1080p or 1440p models. The assumption is that you won’t be doing any heavy UHD gaming on the RTX 5060 Ti, even though Nvidia has somewhat switched up its messaging compared to the 40-series and doesn’t use specific resolutions as a selling point. That doesn’t mean playing games at 4K is off the table, but you’ll be relying more on AI upscaling techniques like DLSS 4 than ever.

VRAM is normally a sore spot for 60-class cards, which is exactly why there’s a 16GB version of the RTX 5060 Ti in the first place. It’s widely argued that even the cheapest graphics cards should be rocking more than 8GB since new releases munch more memory than ever, but your mileage will fully depend on specific game optimizations and your resolution of choice.

I’d certainly prefer it if the bar started at 12GB since that would provide some wiggle room for future shenanigans and line up with RTX 5070 specs. Nvidia has instead elected to provide a 16GB model, and it is using faster GDDR7 modules like the rest of the Blackwell range. I reckon the green team could have appeased most players by arming the 70-series model with 16GB and reserving the 12GB setup for a single 5060 Ti version, but perhaps that’s in the green team’s mid-generation refresh plan.

As for power, the RTX 5060 Ti comes with a 180W TDP, making it one of the least hungry Blackwell GPUs so far. That means you’ll get away with using a 450W PSU, which could save you a few pennies if you’re adding the card to an existing rig. I can see this specific model serving as an easy generational jump for players still maining something like the RTX 2060, and keeping wattage requirements low is going to help the card make its way to smaller builds.

Design

In the absence of a Founders Edition, it’s up to AIB partners to cook up appropriate RTX 5060 designs. Palit's take on the new Nvidia GPU directly targets players looking for a small form factor card that avoids skimping on cooling, but the result is something that’s still longer than the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070.

I’m noticing a trend with card designs this generation, and Nvidia is making brands look a little silly, albeit unintentionally. The main issue is that even powerhouse GPUs like the GeForce RTX 5080 Founders Edition are pretty compact thanks to a new split PCB approach, but AIB partners are still largely using the same shrouds and fans as before.

Palit’s RTX 5060 Ti is still respectably compact, measuring in at 117mm x 292mm, so it’s a nice choice for SFF builds regardless. You also won’t have to wrangle one of those Nvidia 12VHPWR dongles since this model sticks with a good old 8-pin connector. Still, I’m a little sad that all the sleekest cards right now happen to be Founders Edition models that are by and large not available to buy or don’t exist in the first place.

The Palit RTX 5060 Ti wears a fairly minimalist plastic shroud. You’re getting no fancy pants RGB here or anything that could provide cause to aim for a higher MSRP, and honestly? I’d rather every brand followed suit if it meant providing appropriately priced cards. Plus, the GPU is armed with a tri-cooler setup, so thermals, theoretically, shouldn’t remotely be an issue.

Features

Modern-day graphics cards live and die by their software-based features, and the RTX 5060 Ti benefits from being part of the Blackwell family. By opting for this latest model over something like the older RTX 4060 Ti, you’re getting access to the latest version of Nvidia’s AI upscaling suite. For many players, DLSS 4 will be the main reason to buy a new GeForce GPU since it’ll boost fps via Multi-Frame Generation and dynamic resolution techniques, all while keeping latency low. But there are naysayers out there who’d say such techniques are a faux performance hike – an argument that is growing within enthusiast circles.

I’d personally keep two things in mind when it comes to DLSS 4. The first is that while it’s now compatible with over 75 games, it’s not going to rescue you from low frame rates across your entire Steam library. In Nvidia’s ideal world, every new outing will launch with Multi-Frame Generation support that will effectively fill in the gaps and allow you to hit higher resolutions than before. That could happen, but I don’t want anyone thinking it’ll be there by default to save the day.

My other reservation is that while I do think DLSS 4 and its new Transformer model can predict frames pretty accurately, it’s not flawless. Finer details can still be susceptible to weirdness and end up slightly skewed, and no one can speak for any hiccups that future adventurers could potentially experience with the feature switched on. It could be the case that developers and the tech itself simply get better at mitigating any visual glitches as time goes on, but again, it’s not a guarantee.

Those potential caveats aside, DLSS 4 is going to be a godsend for some entry-level builds. Multi-frame generation can effectively help your rig hit minimum specs for new games and even switch ray tracing on without turning things into a slideshow. The “Multi” part stems from the fact that Blackwell GPUs can generate up to three extra frames for every single natively rendered image, resulting in an fps boost.

Normally, this would come with a latency risk, but Nvidia Reflex is on hand to combat any lag in conjunction with upscaling techniques. There is a new version on the way that’s going to help make playing even competitive shooters on the fastest gaming monitors possible with fewer caveats, but I’ll have to wait for that to land before knowing how much it’ll benefit cards like the RTX 5060 Ti.

Performance

Off the back of a few days of putting the RTX 5060 Ti to work, I can confirm that it will outpace the RTX 4060 Ti without any DLSS backup. Based on my experience with Cyberpunk 2077 alone, you’re looking at a 27% uplift at 1080p, and I was pretty impressed by the jump from 104fps to an 185fps average in Hitman 3 with ultra settings applied.

Nvidia’s claim of “over 100fps” largely holds up, and even Marvel Rivals managed to clear the bar by hitting a 107fps average. Naturally, enabling ray tracing makes all the difference, as the effects will knock your Night City trip down to around 52fps, while Hitman 3 just about manages an even 60. I wouldn’t really advise messing with fancy lighting unless you’re either into dialling back other settings or making use of DLSS 4, and if you’re comfortable with doing the latter, it will provide you with pretty lofty frame rates.

To keep things consistent with my other GPU benchmarks, I set DLSS 4 Multi Frame Generation to x4 where available and Super Sampling to “balanced” while testing the RTX 5060 Ti. By doing so, I was able to get Cyberpunk 2077 to run at 186fps at 1440p with ray tracing enabled. Not remotely shabby, seeing as I could have played around with a few settings and probably optimized things to hit around 240Hz, matching higher premium gaming monitor refresh rates.

Multi-Frame Generation really saves Hitman 3 at 1440p with ray tracing on too, ramping things up from a measly 39fps to 195fps. DLSS also came in handy when playing Marvel Rivals since it cranks up QHD frames from 75fps to 227fps, and while I’d perhaps leave it off if I was playing competitively, I couldn’t smell any latency issues during casual matches.

On that note, I play Overwatch 2 competitively fairly regularly, and if you do too, I can confirm the RTX 5060 Ti has the chops to hit 600fps with 1080p low settings enabled. That’s perhaps not a shocker since it’s not that demanding to run, but I always make a point of seeing if a card can keep up with my preferred specs. FYI, that’s without DLSS involved, and if you’re confident Reflex can prevent things feeling a little funny when upscaling, you could probably bump settings a bit or try 1440p.

If it’s a 4K experience you’re after, you should probably start with the RTX 5070. That said, the gap isn’t as wide as you might think between that $549 GPU and the RTX 5060 Ti. The new 60-class card can hit 34fps in Cyberpunk 2077 without DLSS on, which doesn’t feel worlds apart from the 5070’s 48fps average. Plus, if you actually make use of Multi-Frame Generation and switch ray tracing on, you’re going to be hitting around 124fps, and while the 70-class model can touch 160fps, the difference might not be worth $120 to every player.

On the temperature side of things, you won't remotely have to worry about things getting toasty when using the Palit model specifically. That triple setup kept things largely under 60°c / 140° Fahrenheit a majority of the time, and the highest I could get it to hit under full load was around 72°c / 161.6° Fahrenheit. I can't speak for other brands, but this Infinity model should keep nice and icy in most scenarios, which gives it a better chance running all those demanding games yet to come.

Should you buy the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5060 Ti

Instinctively, I feel like most players shouldn’t buy the RTX 5060 Ti, but not because it’s a bad GPU. The first 60-class Blackwell graphics card provides a nice performance uplift compared to the 4060 Ti, and those DLSS 4 abilities are there for those who want an easy frame rate boost. Ultimately, it’s a decent GPU that has arrived at a bad time, and its success will hinge on both availability and third-party pricing.

If you’re rocking a 1080p or QHD setup, and you’re not planning on aiming for 4K anytime soon, the RTX 5060 Ti will cater to your needs. Just like last generation, ray tracing is a bit of a stretch with other settings at ultra, but this is the first 60-series GPU I’ve tested that could provide technically playable results at 1440p without relying on AI upscaling.

My main concern is that if there aren’t RTX 5060 Ti models available consistently at Nvidia’s MSRP, the GPU risks losing any value incentive. Sure, it might be able to pull off some nice 4K tricks using Multi-Frame Generation, but I’d never dream of telling you to pick one up if it ends up only available for over $500. That’s the RTX 5070 and RX 9070’s territory, and vendors have no business pricing up cards in that manner.

Even if the RTX 5060 Ti 16GB is freely available at $429, deciding whether it’s the right GPU is going to be tricky. The 8GB version will naturally be less futureproof since future PC outings could munch more memory, but I’d argue that if you’re going to stress out the card with higher resolutions, you’ll likely end up using DLSS anyway, which cuts back significantly on VRAM usage. Does that mean you’d be better off spending $379 on the base version? Perhaps, but only if the RTX 5060 doesn’t swoop in with surprising performance next month for $80 less.

Here’s the TLDR – I’d hold off on picking up any new-gen models for now unless you absolutely need a new graphics card. That includes the RTX 5060 Ti, but if your GPU suddenly dies on you this year or you’re able to say “one banana” in between frames when playing newly released adventures, this 60-series card will help you easily run everything at 1440p for under $450 (if it can stay at that MSRP).

How I tested the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5060 Ti

For a week, I used the RTX 5060 Ti within my main PC to both casually play games and run benchmarks. During that time, I used Cyberpunk 2077, Hitman 3, Total War: Warhammer 3, and Marvel Rivals specifically to measure average frame rates at 1080p, 1440p, and 4K, while also assessing general performance with DLSS 4 AI upscaling on and off. In addition, I also took note of factors like peak temperatures and design elements so as to compare the card to rivals and other models within its price range.

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Nvidia has unveiled three new RTX 5060 series graphics cards, and the vanilla GPU should come in at $299. I say should since the new models will absolutely be at the mercy of custom MSRPs and potentially affected by US tariffs, both of which could become the perfect recipe for yet another disappointing launch.

The RTX 5060 won't arrive until May, but its Nvidia GeForce RTX 5060 Ti siblings will officially join the best graphics card race tomorrow. The cheaper of the two will retail for $379 and features 8GB GDDR7 VRAM paired with a GB206 GPU. There's a 16GB version too for those of you who'd rather have memory to spare, but that's going to set you $429 (or potentially the same price as a Nintendo Switch 2 pre-order).

The base RTX 5060 is what I'd traditionally refer to as entry-level since its 3,840 CUDA, 120 Tensor, and 30 ray tracing cores theoretically cater to a 1080p ultra settings experience. But, the budget-friendly side of Blackwell also has access to DLSS 4, which should allow you to boost fps at higher resolutions using Multi Frame Generation and AI upscaling.

The green team's main pitch for the RTX 5060 is that it'll seemingly let you run "your favorite games, maxed out" at over 100 frames per second. The natural caveats are that you'll be sticking to 1080p, using DLSS in "Quality" mode, and fully utilizing multi-frame generation to achieve that particular feat.

In-house benchmarks show the RTX 5060 specifically hitting just shy of 150fps in Cyberpunk 2077 using those settings, whereas the GeForce RTX 4060 allegedly only managed around 60fps in the same scenario. I'll naturally be sharing my own benchmarks soon that will delve into results with DLSS on and off, but the comparative figures make sense given the differences between original Frame Generation and the latest version.

Comparative performance will come, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't more nervous about pricing. General availably has already been a sore spot across the board this generation, and while I'm starting to see the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 return to virtual shelves, you're looking at over $700 for custom options.

My fear is that the should-be budget-friendly RTX 5060 will end up costing just as much as a 70-class card if standard models can't remain available, leaving only the versions that target a much higher price point. On top of that, ever-shifting US tariff policies could even drive up those same costs further, meaning the upgrade could realistically be off the cards for players in the states.

The 60-series should represent a range of GPUs that pack a respectable punch for an approachable price. Nvidia is clearly aiming for this by offering up a $299 model, even if I am a little disappointed that we haven't moved past 8GB VRAM yet. Yes, there are arguments to be made about that amount of memory being plenty for 1080p gameplay, especially with DLSS enabled. However, if the sub-$300 pricing goes out the window due to various factors, grumbling about the minimum memory bar will be somewhat justified.

I'll be sharing my thoughts on the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5060 Ti soon, and I am hoping it'll serve as an approachable GPU upgrade in 2025. That said, the cheaper Intel Arc B580 has already pitched up camp on the entry-level battlefield, and while it's also suffering from price inflation, the green team already has a fight on its hands before the eventual AMD Radeon RX 9060 rolls into town.

If it's a punchier GPU you're after, I'll be continuing to keep an eye on the RTX 5070 stock situation. I'm also watching out for the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080, but to be frank, the RTX 5080 stock and RTX 5090 stock situation is another level of dire.

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Nvidia's RTX 5060 family of graphics cards have apparently been delayed, and we might not see the Ti version arrive until mid-April. You'll have to potentially wait an extra month to pick up the vanilla version since that'll supposedly show up in mid-May, but if it gives Nvidia a bit of time to properly sort its stock situation this time, I'm happy to wait a little longer.

The latest RTX 5060 release date rumors come courtesy of leaker 9550pro in the form of a Board Channels post. The insider update states that while the 60-class best graphics card contenders were originally meant to launch in March, AIC partners have now been informed the first Ti models won't be available until April.

It's naturally a bit of a bummer, especially since the GPU scene is a bit of an expensive mess right now. All the "reasonably" priced RTX 5070 stock practically doesn't exist, and trying to work out where to buy an RX 9070 XT is a pure struggle. Even last gen cards are being snapped up pretty quick, so there's absolutely a need for more models at different price points.

Should you wait for the RTX 5060?

Once the RTX 5060 and RTX 5060 Ti are read to come out the oven, I'm certain they'll make for excellent budget GPUs. I'm hesitant to use that phrase seeing as even lower priced graphics cards end up costing well beyond MSRP when it comes to custom designs, and with everyone snapping up the cheapest versions during Nvidia's launches, things could go the same way next month.

Whether or not you should wait for an RTX 5060 series GPU comes down to what you actually need. If you simply need a lightweight card that will run the latest games at 1080p I wouldn't look past the AMD Radeon RX 7600. It's far from being a powerhouse, but since you can grab one for $269 at Amazon and it has the chops for ultra settings, its far from being a bad choice.

I was able to hit at least 80fps in the likes of Hitman 3, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, and Returnal without dialling visuals down, and that's all some of you will potentially need depending on your gaming monitor of choice. The RX 7600 does struggle a bit though when it comes to ray tracing, but the card does has access to AMD's FSR 3 and Frame Generation tricks in times of need.

I'd normally point you all towards the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 too, but its current price is giving me a migraine. The cheapest version is currently at Newegg for $429.99 when it should come in at $299.99. There's no situation where I'd tell you to pay that sort of money rather than just waiting for the RTX 5060 next month, but I do get that it comes with the risk of not getting a card at all.

I'm going to be real with you - it's a pretty crummy time to be a PC player. Those of you with relatively modern graphics card are best just waiting for everything to normalize. However, if you're in the situation where you're struggling to actually run games because your GPU is either too old or faulty, I'd either jump on the cheapest RX 7600 are an interim upgrade for now.

I'm hoping RTX 5060 stock is healthy this spring, and holding out for AMD to reveal its entry-level GPU plans soon too. An RX 9060 with a competitive price tag and generous specs could really help boost the cheap PC gaming space, as I feel like it could have been given more love last generation.

If you're firmly still aiming for mid-range upgrades, you'll want to check out my Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 review before trying to find stock. Those of you with money burning a hole in your pocket will also want to look at the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080 too, but good luck finding either model right now.

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AMD's Radeon RX 9070 GPUs are fast becoming the best-selling ones on Amazing right now, and they've earned a lot of praise from PC gamers for their dedication to native power over AI enhancements. They also wear super-reasonable price tags in comparison to most 16GB, 4K GPUs, and that's not exactly anything new for this brand. AMD has been the scrappy, undercutting underdog of the PC gaming market for a while now, but it feels like this tactic is finally starting to pay off in 2025.

The GPU market may seem like a pretty clear-cut race between Nvidia and AMD, but in truth, there are loads of horses to bet on. There's also Intel's products, there's the board partners like MSI, Asus, PNY, and Zotac, who make their own versions of each GPU and retail them for their own prices. If you're looking for a real two-horse race, you only need to look as far as the best CPUs for gaming.

Looking at Steam's hardware survey each month, you'll see a clear divide between Intel and AMD, and Intel is still way out in front. For years it's been the go-to brand that everyone knows best and aspires to get for their gaming PCs. AMD has always looked to entice budget builders, but its recent strides to engineer for content creators, gamers, and enthusiasts are starting to land them in good stead - the X3D processors it creates are swiftly becoming the most popular choices for all of those categories.

All the while, Intel hasn't had the best time of it of late. Its 13th and 14th generations of desktop processors had a major PR crisis last year as the Raptor Lake products faced widespread reports of instability. Its much-anticipated Arrow Lake, Intel Core Ultra desktop CPUs also launched late in 2024, but their gaming results have really underperformed for gamers in reviews. They're also more expensive than AMD's offerings, and thanks to a new naming scheme, they're terrifically confusing.

Topping all of that off, Intel has now moved onto a new motherboard socket, and given the company's track record, that means no more support for anyone who bought a 12th, 13th, or 14th generation processor and wants to be able to upgrade without rebuilding from scratch on a brand new motherboard. This can prove costly, and for the sorts of performance improvements Intel is demonstrating with Arrow Lake, it doesn't exactly seem worth it, does it?

There are conversations to be had about the lifespan of a gaming PC these days, and I'm not sure a system with an Alder Lake chip from 2021 has any right to be dubbed as "old".

The difference in that respect is night and day between Intel and AMD. I bought my first gaming PC in 2020 and it used a Ryzen 3000 CPU. That generation plugs into an AM4 CPU socket which first launched in 2016, and AMD is still supporting it with new, compatible processors through its extended Ryzen 5000 Series products. That's nearly a decade of support for people who don't want to upgrade to a new system, and while I'd argue that's maybe a little long in the tooth for any PC that's used for gaming on a regular basis, it's unmatched good-faith for AMD's consumers.

The Ryzen 9000 Series plugs into the AM5 socket that's been used by the Ryzen 7000 and 8000G families. This was AMD's first DDR5-compatible motherboard socket, and thanks to now three full generations of processors, there's already an amazing upgrade path for anyone who adopts this motherboard. What's more, AMD has already committed to supporting the AM5 platform through 2027 at least, so anyone who has built a PC in the last five years won't need to think about a new system again until well into the future.

This has been a particularly difficult generation to get consumers to buy into, from the perspective of AMD and Intel. The arrival of DDR5 RAM has called for new motherboards for all, but the prices of that memory combined with a new motherboard and CPU is a tidy sum for most gamers who already poured a lot of money into their DDR4 systems, let alone the best graphics cards. So for Intel to switch motherboard sockets in 2024, demanding yet another new motherboard is doing nothing but fueling AMD's momentum.

Admittedly, I haven't gone hands-on with any of the new Intel Core Ultra processors yet, but it's hard to recommend the idea of a new motherboard and CPU solely for Intel's benefit. If I were building a PC today, be it a budget, entry-level machine, or an enthusiast-grade powerhouse, I'd be building with AMD.

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The RTX 5070 has only just launched, so I'm a little surprised to already see some prebuilt gaming PCs rocking the new GPU. I'm even more surprised to see a few of those PCs cost less than $2,000, especially since there are still 40 series machines that can go well beyond that number.

Of course, you'll need to act quickly if you want to secure one of these rigs as soon as they're available. Given the new graphics card is still suffering from launch day stock shortages, competition in PCs will be fierce, especially with the mid-range GPU battleground getting as competitive as it currently is. The most affordable option I've found is a Yeyian Yari that only costs $1,499.99 at Newegg. Annoyingly, it's already on backorder, but you can still add this machine to your cart for the next time it's in stock.

The other best gaming PCs I've spotted that rock the RTX 5070 come from Walmart and Best Buy, and they seem more available if you're looking for something immediately, but do cost a bit more. This Skytech Chronos at Walmart costs $1,899.99, and it comes with an up-to-date Ryzen 7 processor and liquid cooling. If you don't mind paying more, there's also a CLX SET gaming PC at Best Buy that costs $2,089.99. For more details on all three rigs, check the blocks below.

Should you buy an RTX 5070 gaming PC?

With big marketing claims touting the Nvidia RTX 5070 as an RTX 4090 rival, it's easy to see why you might want to grab a gaming PC with one inside as quickly as possible. We certainly found in our review that while the DLSS 4 and Multi-Frame Generation does put it somewhat on par with the RTX 4090, it really isn't a native rival (to the surprise of absolutely nobody).

Compared to the RTX 4070 Super, however, it does offer a performance uplift, and cuts the price by $50, making it an excellent mid-range graphics card for all sorts of gaming tasks at 4K and 1440p.

Of course, the price of gaming PCs housing one of the best graphics cards is always going to cost more this close to launch, so it might be worth thinking about holding off for now until the stock and price settle on them.

The alternative is finding out where to buy the AMD Radeon RX 9070, which will, according to marketing claims and the first few reviews, give you better native performance for a similar price. I haven't seen any prebuilt gaming PCs emerge holstering this big iron however, so it might be more of a wait for this GPU to reach the prebuilt PC market. AMD can be slower on the uptick in that respect, so only time will tell how many AMD configurations we'll see on the shelves.

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The RTX 5070 should have launched at 9am ET today, but it almost feels like supplies of the Nvidia GeForce GPU didn't exist in the first place. I practically watched retailers switch their listings from "coming soon" to "out of stock" as soon as the clock struck, and I'm frankly confused.

If, like me, you went hunting for RTX 5070 stock today, you will have been greeted with the same disappointment at the likes of Newegg, Best Buy, and Amazon. Even monstrously priced custom models failed to show up at 9am, which is weird since I don't know why anyone would pay the same price for the card as the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti. Yes, I know it's entirely likely that resellers managed to snap up all the GPUs first, but even that doesn't make much sense in my head.

So, what now? Well, as much as I think the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 is actually a solid mid-range GPU, I'd suggest looking at where to buy RX 9070 series graphics cards instead. AMD has priced its RDNA 4 GPUs pretty competitively, with the non-Ti matching the 5070's $549 MSRP and the RX 9070 Ti targeting at $599 MSRP. There's still a good chance those two options will suffer the same fate as the green team's stock tomorrow, but if it can remain available even for just a few minutes, it'll claim launch victory over the GeForce GPUs.

Should you wait for the RTX 5070?

You'll technically have a second chance to grab the RTX 5070 since the Founders Edition will show up later in the month at an unspecified date. However, you might be sitting wondering if you should even bother waiting for the mid-range GPU to become available again. I'm a big believer in not holding off too long to upgrade your PC if it's getting in the way of you hitting your Steam backlog, and while the new card can pull off tremendous 4K tricks using AI upscaling, it's not the only option on the market.

First and foremost, I'd focus on seeing whether the RX 9070 is worth picking up. AMD's mid-range GPU duo are looking pretty promising since they target a 4K gaming experience for under $600, but I'll need to benchmark both graphics cards myself before I can pass a verdict. Nevertheless, a 16GB GPU for under $600 that can boost fps with Frame Generation and promises UHD performance sounds pretty great on paper, and it'll be a no brainer if it's actually available at launch.

If we end up in a scenario where jumping on the next-gen bandwagon is impossible, there are a couple of GPUs I'd consider instead of the RTX 5070. The first is the Radeon RX 7800 XT since it's one of the few mid-range cards that starts at $499 and provides admirable 4K results. The only issue there is that it's also largely out of stock, but I'm hoping some cards slip onto the scene while everyone tries to track down new stock.

The other contender is naturally the RTX 4070 Super. Ideally, this would be the GPU I'd be telling everyone to jump on if the RTX 5070 remains out of stock long term, but guess what? Even the Lovelace model is MIA. If I didn't know any better, I'd say the graphics card scene is going through another shortage crisis, only this time I'm not sure what the underlying issue actually is.

My TLDR is effectively this - if you can grab a last-gen graphics card like the RTX 4070 Super or RX 7800 XT right now at MSRP, do it. Otherwise, you'll really have no choice but to wait for the RTX 5070 unless you're willing to switch to an entry-level GPU instead, but even the wonderfully affordable Intel Arc B580 is $379 at Newegg right now, $130 more than MSRP.

Hopefully, none of you out there have a rig right now with a graphics card on the blink. If your older RTX 20-series card is still working, I'd keep it from retirement right now. I mean, I've still got an GTX 970 that can technically run Baldur's Gate 3 at 1080p, so when there's a will to play PC games, there's a janky old way.

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The Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 doesn’t truly pack RTX 4090 performance, at least not without AI shenanigans. Does that stop the GPU from potentially being a mid-range champion this generation? Absolutely not, but it heavily relies on DLSS and Multi-Frame Generation to get anywhere near close to last-gen flagship frame rates, and that might not be every player’s bag.

Rather than being a RTX 4090 rival, the GeForce RTX 5070 will furnish your eyeballs with approachable mid-range visuals for $549 / £539. At least, it should do if you can find any RTX 5070 stock at MSRP, and if the rest of Nvidia’s best graphics card contenders this generation are anything to go by, that could be painful. The moment you step into the wasteland of inflated AIB partner pricing, the UHD door practically slams shut on most mid-range player faces, including mine.

If the majority of RTX 5070 options can stay under $600, I’m confident that it’ll serve as the graphics card most players should pick up for solid mid-range performance. Whether it’ll actually get to sit pretty on that particular throne really hinges on whether AMD ends up providing more reasons for middle ground players to buy an RX 9070 series instead. I’ll happily watch both scrap it out if it means 4K gaming is technically getting cheaper, and I’d say things are starting to look up for the mid-range scene.

Specs

Kitted out with a Blackwell GB205 GPU, and 12GB VRAM, the RTX 5070 isn't drastically different to the RTX 4070 Super. In fact, more of the improvements come in the form of faster GDDR7 memory modules, next-gen cores, and faster boost clock speeds. On paper, the card's core count is actually lower, but that's largely the result of optimized architecture rather than reduced specs.

Custom cards like the Asus RTX 5070 Prime OC boast faster clock speeds, so that's worth keeping note of if you're not gunning for a Founders Edition. Nvidia's FE models are usually the first to sell out, and since there will be factory overclocked cards theoretically available at MSRP, you'll at least end up with something a little faster and with the cooling setup to pull off further overclocking.

In short, the RTX 5070 is pretty distant from its beefier Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 Ti in terms of specs. In truth, that GPU feels closer to a GeForce RTX 5080 variant, and the 70-class model is firmly a mid-range graphics card. It is a pity that the card is rocking 12GB VRAM rather than 16GB again this generation, and while the extra memory might not be required with DLSS on, it would help futureproof the card.

Design

For what feels like years now, I’ve been asking myself why GPUs need to be almost the size of a phat PS2. I get that the new age of UHD gaming requires chonky coolers to keep temperatures at acceptable levels, but I’ve still been longing for a new card that’s around the same size as my trusty old GTX 970.

Well, we’re finally getting that kind of design back with the GeForce RTX 5070. I’ve been testing two models – Nvidia’s Founder’s Edition and the Asus Prime OC, and the latter is kitted out with a smaller two-slot shroud that effectively follows the same blueprint as the GeForce RTX 5080. Its sleek, two-tone grey body isn’t going to remotely dominate your PC case, and I can see this card making its way into plenty of small form-factor builds over the next two years.

Just like with the RTX 5080, the new RTX 5070 FE design is possible due to Nvidia’s new split PCB approach that allows for more efficient airflow and heatsink placement. The brand has used this to pack a dual-fan solution, large fins on top, and ventilation around back. You won’t have to worry too much about thermal caveats, but if Founders Edition cards sell out instantly, you’ll end up with a custom option at (hopefully) MSRP anyway.

On that note, the Asus RTX 5070 Prime OC isn’t quite on the same page as the Founder’s Edition, as it sticks with a familiar tri-fan setup that prioritizes cooling. Custom 70-class designs, thankfully, aren’t as absurd as the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 Ti since that card uses the same shroud as many RTX 4090 models. Plus, Asus’ take is one of the nicer AIB designs out there, as its curves and subtle black body help prevent the card from looking too industrial.

If you’re waiting to hear if the RTX 5070 ditches Nvidia’s new 12-pin power connector, I’ve got bad news. You’ll still have to use the dreaded dongle to hook the GPU up to your PSU, but it at least scales things back to two 8-pin connections, which should create less cable bulk inside your case. The Founders Edition also uses an angled socket to steer wires out the way, but the Asus Prime OC does still have everything firing outwards. Again, it’d be nice to see custom brands embrace some of this generation’s more helpful design queues, but that’ll perhaps come with time.

Features

DLSS 4 pretty much sits at the core of the entire RTX 50-series range, but the feature arguably does its heaviest lifting in the mid-range ring. In case it wasn’t already obvious, the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 embodies the idea of using tools like Super Sampling and Multi-Frame Generation by default, and it’s the reason why Nvidia felt it could get up on stage at CES and say the card packs “RTX 4090 performance”.

Don’t worry, I’ll be getting to that bold claim, but I’ll outline exactly what DLSS 4 as a package is first. In a nutshell, it’s effectively Nvidia’s umbrella term for its suite of AI upscaling tools for GeForce GPUs. If you’ve already got an RTX 20-series card, you’ll likely have come across Super Sampling, a setting that dynamically scales resolutions to boost fps. RTX 4000 users can also tap into Frame Generation abilities that, in simple terms, fill in frame rate gaps using AI, with the end goal being faster visuals without a noticeable loss in quality.

With every generation, Nvidia seemingly builds upon DLSS with a new series-exclusive feature. I’m not remotely a fan of locking software features to newer generations, but in the case of the RTX 50-series, you’re getting enhanced “Multi-Frame Generation” abilities that can make three frames for every single rendered image. Switching the option on means you’re theoretically boosting fps by 4x, and that ultimately helps the RTX 5070 outpace even RTX 4090 in terms of AI-enhanced performance.

Super Sampling and Frame Generation is anything but infallible, and both can produce artifacting, latency issues, and other visual hiccups in specific scenarios. Nvidia clearly spends a lot of time looking at its formula in an attempt to kick these quirks to the curb, and DLSS 4 makes headway by adopting a new “Transformer” AI model and additional features like Ray Reconstruction for enhanced ray tracing. The result is instant enhancements in compatible games that are going from strength to strength, and that’s going to help PC builds hopefully resist the generational winds for longer than just a few years.

I get it – the idea of AI creeping into PC gaming more than gives me the ick too. However, DLSS as a toolkit did emerge before ChatGPT and the likes sank their claws into global life. Helping lighten the load for GPUs like the RTX 5070 is beneficial, especially since system requirements keep getting more outrageous by the second, but I get why some are trying to stick to native settings where possible. I don’t completely subscribe to the “fake frames” argument making the rounds since I don’t think the situation is as clear cut, but I will be keeping a close eye out for caveats tied to the tech as more games with support roll out.

The other main draw of buying cards like the RTX 5070 in 2025 is the Nvidia App. The green team’s new hub has effectively replaced the old GeForce Experience software included with previous generations, and it focuses more on quick optimization and providing easier access to settings buried in the Control Panel. There’s even voltage, power, and temperature sliders to play with in there too, but if you’re using a card like the Asus Prime OC, you’ll want to go with the brand’s own GPU Tweak III software for proper overclocking.

Performance

The RTX 5070 has a lot on its shoulders thanks to Nvidia. Claims that the $549 GPU can provide the same performance as a $1,500 flagship raised my eyebrows into outer space during CES, and I immediately assumed the involvement of AI was a given. I’m pretty sure the green team is going to receive a bit of backlash post launch, but now that I’ve benchmarked the card, I’m pretty sure it’ll live up to many players’ mid-range expectations.

Let’s start by taking a look at comparative RTX 4090 performance. Across my test suite of games, the RTX 5070 naturally fell short on the native track. In Cyberpunk 2077, you’re looking at an average of 48fps using the ultra preset at 4K, whereas the Lovelace flagship can easily hit around 76fps. We’re talking about a card with a 250W TDP and a much lower core count versus a 450W monster, so forgive me if I’m not remotely surprised.

That native trend continues across all my benchmarked games, so where’s the RTX 4090 performance Nvidia promised? You guessed it – the green team’s talking exclusively about DLSS enhanced frame rates. For what it’s worth, Multi-Frame Generation does help the mid-ranger outpace the flagship, as I was able to hit around 215fps with x4 MFG enabled while the 4090 couldn’t quite reach the 200fps mark using x2.

Nvidia claims that 80% of users play games on RTX graphics cards with DLSS on. If you’re one of those players, you’ll effectively be hitting RTX 4090 frame rates using the RTX 5070 across your Steam library. I’m planning to test even more games using the mid-range card throughout the generation, but in my usual go-to benchmark test subjects, the card pulls big moves with ray tracing off. Things are much tighter when you turn fancy lighting on, and the 4090 actually still beat the 5070 by 5fps in that instance, but I ended up with over 10% higher frame rates in Hitman 3 and over 20% in Dragon Age: The Veilguard.

Personally, I think comparing the RTX 5070’s native performance to the last-gen Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 Super makes far more sense. Using Cyberpunk 2077 and Hitman 3 as benchmark examples, the Blackwell card manages to provide a modest native uplift that makes the GPU feel less generational at 4K. I’m talking three frames of a difference in CP2077 with 4K Ultra Ray Tracing enabled, but the gap is far wider at 1440p.

In CD Projekt Red’s RPG, I was able to comfortably hit 104fps, whereas the RTX 4070 Super taps out at 87fps. Hitman ran at 174fps versus 140fps on the Lovelace 70-class card, and since you won’t be hitting that 60fps sweet spot at 4K on either card without DLSS assistance, the RTX 5070 makes more sense as a 1440p option at $549. If the last-gen model manages to show up for significantly less, it’ll end up being the better value option, but MSRP versions are practically nonexistent right now.

Since the RTX 5070 properly hits 4K with DLSS 4 enabled, I want to talk about what that will actually look like on your gaming monitor. For the most part, the visuals look pretty clean, and I couldn’t find many instances of AI-related quirks, glitchy textures, or misinterpreted images. On occasion, I’d see some finer details look slightly strange, most notably a bush in the Obsidian RPG Avowed that had a glowing marker during the opening, but even that was momentary. I also saw some signage in Cyberpunk 2077 briefly look a little garbled when speeding down Night City in a commandeered vehicle, which is something that also happened with the more expensive RTX 5080.

From my experience, most of the visual hiccups are tied to Super Sampling rather than Frame Generation. I’ve yet to see any drawbacks to using x4 MFG specifically compared to x2, and Nvidia Reflex does a nifty job of keeping latency issues at bay in shooters like Marvel Rivals. Keep in mind that in most games, you can switch MFG and SS on and off independently from each other, so if you ever do find visual weirdness tied to one of the options, tweaking settings can help.

Let’s take a moment to talk about the Asus RTX 5070 Prime OC I’ve also been testing, as its faster clock speeds are somewhat promising. Using just the base factory overclock, I was able to grab a few extra frames here and there, and I was pretty impressed with Hitman 3 running at 302fps with DLSS 4 and MFG on. The three-fan setup means you’ll be able to play around more with higher wattages and squeeze every drop out of Nvidia’s GPU, and if you don’t mind a slightly bulkier card, that could result in some nice performance gains.

Onto thermals, and the highest recorded temperature I have for the RTX 5070 Founders Edition is 71°C. That was under full load in Dragon Age: The Veilguard with ray tracing and ultra settings maxed out, so it’s safe to say this smaller card can keep itself pretty cool. For the most part, the reference model stayed within the mid-60s, but if that’s not icy enough, then the fact the Asus Prime OC variant peaked at 67°C should please you. Keep in mind that’s with the factory overclock enabled, so pushing things beyond the norm shouldn’t get too toasty.

Should you buy the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070?

It’s not an RTX 4090 alternative, but the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 is a solid mid-range graphics card that’ll help more players hit 4K for under $600. You’ll have to make peace with the fact that DLSS 4 and Multi-Frame Generation are almost mandatory when it comes to UHD performance, but you’re still getting pretty nice results for $50 less than the RTX 4070 Super at launch.

Nvidia is clearly trying to shift the GPU scene away from solely focusing on native benchmarks. That’s exactly why it thinks the RTX 5070 boasts RTX 4090 levels of performance in the first place, and if the entire market ends up embracing AI upscaling as a default setting, marketing graphics cards in that way makes sense. While I’m not seeing any glaring issues with using Mult-Frame Generation right now, there’s no guarantee new quirks won’t emerge in the future, so I’m hoping releases without DLSS support won’t suffer too much over the next two years.

AMD isn’t leaning quite as hard into AI with the Radeon RX 9070 series from the looks of things, as the company is sticking with standard Frame Generation and actively talking more about native performance. If that mid-range rival manages to pull off higher frame rates without assistance for under $600, Nvidia could find itself in a spot of bother, so we’ll see what happens when I put the card through the same benchmarks.

Of course, all of that also hinges on whether the RTX 5070 will be available at MSRP. If all the $549 / £539 stock sells out instantly, it could end up being side-lined. Ideally, retailers will have plenty of both Nvidia and AMD's next gen options available throughout the year, as this still truly help keep things competitive within the mid-range market.

How I tested the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070

For a week, I used the RTX 5070 Founders Edition and Asus Prime OC in my main gaming PC. During that time, I used Cyberpunk 2077, Hitman 3, Dragon Age: The Veilguard, Total War: Warhammer 3, and Marvel Rivals to benchmark the GPU and record average frame rates. This enabled me to compare fps against both the RTX 4090 and RTX 4070 Super to assess whether the new model can provide better native and DLSS 4-enhanced results and whether there are any visual caveats tied to the latter.

For more information on how we test graphics cards, swing by our full GamesRadar+ hardware policy for more information.

I'm a mid-range gamer at heart, so I've been pretty hyped for the Nvidia RTX 5070 since it's CES 2025 unveiling. Now that I've got my hands on the Blackwell GPU, it has a chance to both validate my excitement while backing up the green team's launch claims. Thankfully, the card is already convincing me that $549 can get you a console killing gaming PC experience in 2025, especially when it comes to demanding settings.

I am praying that RTX 5070 stock will hold up on March 5 when the Nvidia GPU finally launches, but I'd be appalled if it isn't in high demand. Not only did CEO Jensen Huang suggest that the best graphics card contender is capable of GeForce RTX 4090 levels of performance for $549, but it is the most affordable Blackwell options of the bunch. Plus, when you consider the fact the PS5 Pro comes in at $699.99, its easy to see why budget conscious players might end up using this card to create a beefier rig instead.

As a prelude to my review this coming week, I thought I'd spend my lazy Sunday providing a RTX 5070 preview of sorts. I'll be crunching lots of numbers and comparative frame rates in the days ahead, but as a graphics card reviewer, I'd argue freeing your mind from frame rate counters and just straight up playing games on a GPU in real scenarios is vital.

Don't get me wrong, GPU benchmarks ultimately help paint a performance picture that ties into overall value. The RTX 5070 will have to prove its a worth Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 successor this month while also convincing you to not buy an RX 9070 series card instead, as AMD is targeting the same mid-range ground with its duo. But, before we get to any of that, I want to talk about how kicking back with Nvidia's offering feels in demanding romps like Cyberpunk 2077, Obsidian's shiny new RPG Avowed, and speedy shooters like Marvel Rivals.

Letting the Nvidia app take the wheel

I spend a lot hours messing with PC settings, but for today, I'm going to let the Nvidia App do the hard work for me. The green team's GPU hub has a whole segment dedicated to automatic game optimization, which theoretically should help you strike the right balance between visuals and frame rates across most of your Steam library.

If you're enthusiast, you'll likely still find yourself in settings menus playing around with the usual array of lighting and texture dials. But, those of you who just want to dive into new outings like you would on PS5 and Xbox Series X will make full use of the Nvidia App. Rather than wondering if you can switch ray tracing on or whether you'd be better scaling things back to 4K, the program will come up with all that for you, and I've yet to pick in any real holes in the optimization process.

Automatic optimization will never be flawless, but neither is picking between performance and quality modes on a console. While I'm, going to say it'll kill off the ritual of messing with PC settings as we know it, I do think it provides those ready-baked vibes that make console gaming so appealing. Put it this way, if you end up using a small formfactor rig in your living room instead of a PS5 Pro, you'll want something that involves less faff so you can head straight into high-spec experience with a controller.

RTX 5070 preview: Cyberpunk 2077

No matter what GPU I'm using these days, I always start my road testing with a drive to Night City. You could call kicking off with Cyberpunk 2077 a birth by fire since the RPG is still one of the most demanding romps on PC, but the RTX 5070 doesn't seem to flinch when using the Nvidia App's optimized settings.

For traversing Cyberpunk 2077's neon soaked concrete jungle, Nvidia suggests running things at 1440p with Ultra Ray Tracing settings enabled. That's ambitious to say the least, and something I'd argue wasn't within the bounds of a mid-range GPU before the dawn of AI upscaling.

However, after spending some time messing around in Night City with the Alienware AW2725DF as a QHD OLED portal, it's clear that fancy lighting and lofty frame rates are absolutely a thing with the next wave of sub-$600 GPUs. While I'm deliberately not looking at frame rates as a sort of Pepsi challenge for the eyeballs, it absolutely felt like I was speeding around and picking fights with local gangs at well over 140fps, so there's potentially a lot of wiggle room if you do want to ramp things up to 4K or swap out other settings.

I've played Cyberpunk 2077 on everything from the best gaming handhelds to tiny mini PCs that are no bigger than a NES cartridge (looking at you, Ayaneo Mini PC AM01), which means I've got a feel of the game's visual range. I've also used a RTX 4090 to really push the RPG to its visual limit, and honestly? The RTX 4070 feels like it's singing from the same high-spec sheet. Ray traced reflections are out in full force and benefiting from Nvidia's Ray Reconstruction DLSS 4 features, and I couldn't really see any textures that felt compromised.

I'll obviously be looking to dive right into how the GPU fairs without Multi-Frame Generation and DLSS 4 providing an AI boost, but since I can't find any glaring reason to switch those off at a surface level, I'd say Nvidia's RTX 4090 levels of performance claims are pretty much holding up. Keep in mind we're talking about a $549 card with a much lower 250W TDP, so even vaguely mimicking the results of a $1,599 model is a feat.

RTX 5070 preview: Avowed

I'm carrying out this experiment on a Sunday, so I think I deserve to mess around with the new Obsidian outing Avowed as a treat. If I was putting together a mid-range rig to play the new RPG, I'd probably have my eye on the RTX 5070 anyway since I originally played through Skyrim using a good olde GTX 470 before upgrading to a GTX 970 a few years later.

A lot has changed since those GeForce GPUs were on the battlefield, but I reckon the RTX 5070 is aiming for that same console-beating experience. The GTX 970 specifically arrived just in time to showcase what a PC could do at 1080p compared to the PS4 and Xbox One, and the Blackwell card pulls some incredible tricks that feel out of reach for current gen consoles.

The optimized settings presented to me by the Nvidia App ended up being everything cranked to its highest at 4K, AI upscaling set to "performance", and Multi-frame Generation on. As soon as I reached the character creation screen, I knew I was in for something special based on how detailed my Fungai-covered fantasy persona was.

Upon landing on the sandy beaches of the RPGs opening, I fully expected to see some weird nonsense going on since there's an absurd amount of foliage. Instead, I was treated to incredibly detailed greenery that managed to avoid any textural weirdness or aliasing issues. The only thing I could stop across the whole area was some slight shimmering on a highlighted bush, but I almost didn't even notice that.

I ended up pretty engrossed with Avowed's opening and was having a blast poking Lizard soldiers with a pointy dagger. Not one did I find myself distracted by anything that felt like a frame rate dip or spike, and everything felt far beyond 60fps to say the least. If were to guess, I'd say I was hitting over 100fps, which is fabulous considering how delicious Obsidian's world looks even with MFG and DLSS 4 filling in frame rate gaps.

Seeing a mid-range GPU provide punchy visuals at 4K in what could be the closest thing we'll get to a new Elder Scrolls game for a while is pleasing. I want to reiterate that we're talking about a GPU that starts at $549 and small enough to fit comfortably in a compact small formfactor build, and I can imagine such a system becoming a high end living room solution that'll pair nicely with the best gaming TVs. That's not to say it's not an excellent choice for desktop dwellers too since I played with keyboard and mouse, but it'd be hard to justify buying a Series X to play Avowed since I could upgrade an existing PC instead and kick back with a controller.

RTX 5070 preview: Marvel Rivals

I'll admit that I was a little less keen on letting the Nvidia App dictate Marvel Rivals settings on behalf. Non-competitive adventures are on thing, but I wasn't sure if throwing MFG and AI upscaling into the optimized settings mix would impact responsiveness at higher refresh rates.

Those fears ended up being unfounded, as the Apps suggested 4K ultra settings paired with DLSS 4 felt slick. If you're using a high refresh rate monitor or something like the LG UltraGear 32GS95UE-B with dual 1080p 480Hz abilities, you'll want to engage in some manual tinkering to boost fps to suit. But, since the romp features some excellent semi-cell shaded takes on iconic Marvel characters, I imagine many of you would want to stick with UHD settings and still hit what felt consistently around 120fps.

I'd frankly be horrified if I didn't see a big benchmark difference compared to the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 Ti in many games. The card honestly shares more in common with the GeForce RTX 5080 since they use different flavors of the same GB203 GPU. However, in games like Marvel Rivals, I'm getting the impression that those beefier cards aren't entirely necessary unless you're gunning for perhaps solid 1440p 480Hz performance using something like the Sony Inzone M10S. Alas, I'll be presenting my RTX 5070 findings for Marvel Rivals and other games in my final review.

RTX 5070 impressions

Casually playing games with the RTX 5070 has taught me two things. The first is that mid-range graphics cards this generation should potentially pack enough punch to take on current gen consoles like the PS5 Pro, especially since the latter will also be relying on Sony's PSSR AI upscaling rather than relying solely on native results.

The second is that the RTX 5070 could end up being the perfect jumping on point for console players craving a visual upgrade. I'm still a big fan of console-like experiences and a hands-off approach to running games, but features like the Nvidia App and DLSS 4 mean you'll worry less about whether your settings are right. I know too well the pain of trying to hit minimum requirements and recommended specs for new games, but it feels like the green team is elevating a lot of that worry offering up optimizations that that strike a nice balance alongside Multi-frame Generation that'll potentially fill in any problematic gaps in future releases.

All of my RTX 5070 impressions right now are all qualitative, and my final benchmarks could end up telling a different story. That said, based my time simply enjoying Avowed, exploring the streets of Cyberpunk 2077, and clashing with superheroes in Marvel Rivals, I'd be pretty happy with spending $549 for the experience at hand.

The RTX 5070 will still be a significant investment, but I can see the GPU being a solid upgrade option for an existing systems. Plenty of you will no doubt be looking to upgrade from an older GTX 10-series or maybe even RTX 20-series model, and the Blackwell 70-series contender feels more worthwhile than trying to pick up an older GeForce graphics card that lacks DLSS 4 and Multi-Frame Generation. Those features will likely play a big role in keeping your system relevant for multiple generations, and I've got a funny feeling the 5070 will still be kicking by the time the PS6 rolls onto the scene.

Still browsing for GPUs? Check out RTX 5090 stock and RTX 5080 stock for premium graphics card options. You'll also want to peek at the best CPU for gaming if you're putting together a new rig.

If I had my way, I wouldn’t be talking about the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 Ti right now. It’d make far more sense to look at the “vanilla” RTX 5070 and see what it offers the mid-range scene before checking out what its souped-up sibling offers for $200 more. But, since the green team is going with a top-down release schedule again this generation, I can only speak for how the latest 70-class card compares to its beefier RTX 5080 counterpart, and the gaps aren’t too upsetting.

Nvidia has the RTX 5070 Ti priced at $749 / £729 – not too shabby since the RTX 4070 Ti Super originally sat $50 higher. However, the big catch is that this best graphics card contender is at the mercy of custom card pricing, and if fishing around in the gloomy waters of the AIC GPU scene has taught me anything, it’s that you’ll usually end up paying more for models with custom shrouds and factory overclocks regardless of MSRP.

The version I’ve been testing for my RTX 5070 Ti review is the Gigabyte GAMING OC, which just so happens to come in at $919 / $969. That’s an exuberant price tag seeing as the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080 starts at $999, and it’s needless to say that you should just pick up the latter if you’ve got the best part of $1,000 to spend. That’s something that actually upsets me a little since the RTX 5070 Ti does hold up as a nice alternative to the 80-class card when it comes to performance, thermals, and power usage.

Specs

The RTX 5070 Ti shares a hell of a lot in common with the RTX 5080 despite its 70-class moniker. Both graphics cards wield GB203 GPU and 16GB GDDR7 VRAM, but the 5070 Ti’s chipset is naturally scaled down. This in turn provides it with a lower 300W TDP compared to 360W with the RTX 5080, at the expense of a much lower 8,960 CUDA core count.

Throw 280 Tensor cores and 70 RT cores into the mix and you’ve got a card that feels like a class below the RTX 5080. That somewhat helps explain why it’s $200 cheaper, but also aligns more with 70-class sensibilities in terms of power draw and efficiency. Ultimately, this model feels like a good replacement for an aging RTX 3070 Ti since its TDP is only 10W higher, but you will want to review your PSU situation if you’re upgrading from a 20-series or lower-spec Ampere.

Since we’re talking about a custom card, it’s worth touching on what that means for this RTX 5070 Ti. Gigabyte’s GPU boasts a faster 2,588MHz boost clock speeds via a factory overclock, and you can ramp things up further past the standard 2,452MHz using the card’s Control Centre software.

Design

As I’ve already spoiled, there is no RTX 5070 Ti Founders Edition, so you’ll have to make do with custom variants like the Gigabyte Gaming OC. That’s not inherently a bad thing since models like this are designed with overclocking and maximum efficiency in mind, but Nvidia’s new slimmer FE approach means I’m now struggling to tolerate larger GPUs.

And that’s exactly what you’ll get with the Gigabyte RTX 5070 Ti Gaming OC – an absurdly large three-slot graphics card that matches the GeForce RTX 4090 in size. Plenty of other AICs are guilty of the same crime, as every other model I’ve checked features a similar three-fan shroud that cares not for your precious PC case space.

Aesthetically, Gigabyte’s RTX 5070 Ti looks fairly industrial thanks to its gunmetal grey plastics and industrial vibes. The whole package feels very “Metal Gear Rising”, albeit if Raiden was clad in rainbow lighting and could run Cyberpunk 2077 at 4K. You’re getting three halo RGB ring lights around each fan and an illuminated logo with this model, and there’s even a little sliding plate that shunts the branding to the left if you’d rather de-badge the GPU. Is all that worth an extra $200 compared to MSRP? Positively not, but some of you might be looking for that specific vibe regardless.

It’s not that I think the Gigabyte Gaming OC is ugly, it’s more that there’s no way it should be larger than the standard RTX 5080. The extra heft absolutely comes with cooling benefits that I’ll explore further, but the custom card scene doesn’t seem to be aligned with Nvidia on size this generation. Put it this way, the PNY RTX 5080 OC didn’t get a pass for being extra chonky, so I’m hardly going to let a 70-class card off scot-free.

One element that I am slightly nervous about is the 12-pin power connector placement. With the included dongle attached, it sticks out quite a bit in front of the card extending outwards towards my PC side panel. So long as you make sure the adapter is pushed in until you hear a click, and there’s plenty of space between the cable and your PC case side panel, there shouldn’t be any issues.Not angling the connector or positioning it a bit further back on the PCB does play into overheating risks caused by it not being seated properly.

Features

Like it or not, Nvidia is now an AI company, and just like the RTX 30 series before it, Blackwell graphics cards all draw from an artificially enhanced toolkit. Elements like DLSS 4 have swiftly become the main selling point of GeForce GPUs and, just like the RTX 5080, the new RTX 5070 Ti uses Multi-Frame Generation to address a growing need for monstrous PC performance.

I’m going to be delving deeper into the benefits and caveats of DLSS 4 as the next generation of GPUs rolls out. But, as things currently stand, both Multi-Frame Generation and Super Sampling effectively fill in frame rate caps to give you a fps boost. The former is there to guess what’s going to happen next visually to generate three frames for every single native image generated, while AI upscaling dynamically dials down resolutions to provide performance headroom.

With every passing generation, it becomes harder to pass Nvidia’s “is it 4K cake” test. It’s not flawless, and you’ll find AI wrinkles the closer you squint at finer details like textures and distant text. But, considering you can boost fps to triple digits all while mostly preserving perceived fidelity, the tool is well worth using. Plus, the green team keeps latency issues at bay with its Reflex tech, which is absolutely needed when you’re talking about pairing artificial frames with fast-paced movement.

On top of that, you’re also getting Ray Reconstruction, which serves to provide more accurate path-traced lighting, and enhanced Transformer AI model integration. By using the same tech as the likes of ChatGPT, Nvidia claims it can produce better temporal stability, less ghosting, and generally less artificial weirdness, but there’s no 100% guarantee that’ll shield you from graphical nonsense. The results are mostly fine, but as I’ll get on to, there are some hiccups that can somewhat break immersion.

The custom model I’m testing features Gigabyte’s Control Centre as an easy way to experiment with overclocking and even just mess around with the GPU’s RGB lighting. Naturally, enhancing boost clock speeds is the main draw here, and the software packs more functionality than many other brand apps I’ve tried.

I’m a particularly big fan of the OC scanner built into this hub that automatically recommends an optimal stable overclock for your specific system. That feels like the sort of helping hand new overclockers could need to get started, and the whole setup of this chonkier tri-cooler card feels made for ramping up speeds.

Performance

The RTX 5070 Ti lives and dies by the performance it provides compared to its Blackwell siblings. It’s flanked by both its own RTX 5070 and RTX 5080 flesh and blood and will soon have to contend with the AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT on the battlefield. Thankfully, it packed enough of a punch in my tests to justify its existence alongside its 80-class comrade, and while I’ll need to also test the RTX 5070 before truly knowing where it stands, I’m pretty happy with its 4K capabilities.

Normally, I’d expect 4K ray tracing results to provide the biggest gap between card classes, yet that’s not the case for the RTX 5070 Ti. Switching on the Ultra 4K RT preset in Cyberpunk 2077 produced a 30fps average that isn’t too far off the RTX 5080’s 36fps result. The same applied to my Hitman 3 benchmark, with the 70-class card hitting 38fps versus 48fps. The increased boost clock speed of this card plays a role in these figures, so keep that at the forefront of your mind alongside its lofty price. Still, it’s nice to see that you’re not losing too many frames when opting for the cheaper option.

DLSS 4 results are a bit more gappy, but that makes sense given that it’s working with lower frame rates to begin with. The results are still impressive with 4x Multi-Frame Generation enabled, given you’ll be able to hit 212fps with ultra ray tracing enabled in Cyberpunk 2077 and a similar 210fps in Hitman 3. Unless you’re looking to completely satiate one of the best gaming monitors with 4K 240Hz abilities, that’s plenty.

The RTX 5070 Ti also impresses in shooters like Marvel Rivals and Overwatch 2. The hit comic book hero romp can hit 60fps at 4K max settings without any assistance, but switching on DLSS 4 makes hitting a 260fps average child’s play. Playing Overwatch 2 at a ridiculous 600fps (its frame rate cap) is also easy to pull off with this GPU, so you’ll be able to easily dial things in your screen refresh rate preferences.

During all my upcoming GPU reviews, I’ll be on the lookout for any DLSS 4 quirks that come tied to AI upscaling or Multi-frame Generation. While I didn’t come across anything too egregious during testing, I am starting to notice more graphical hiccups as I spend more time with the tools. While driving around the streets of Night City, I noticed that signs would occasionally look nothing like actual letters from a distance, and drawing closer would cause writing to magically transform into English text.

The effect felt a bit like when you see an AI image that’s trying to create writing but ends up producing what looks like made-up characters. It’s not something I’ve encountered that often in games using the feature, and I reckon traveling at speed played a part in the quirk. But, it is worth taking note of if you’re hoping to use the upscaling tools by default, especially if new releases start to feature more weirdness.

As much as I wish the Gigabyte RTX 5070 Ti didn’t share the same girth as an OG PS2, the extra thickness contributes to exceptional cooling. Across all my benchmarks, I couldn’t get the card to rise above 62°C. It’s safe to say that leaves plenty room for overclocking potential, which could ultimately help you inch frame rates closer to RTX 5080 levels.

Should you buy the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 Ti

As a cheaper alternative to the RTX 5080, the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 Ti stands as a great 4K graphics card. The issue is that if you go for something like the Gigabyte Gaming OC, the value is swallowed whole by monstrous price tags that are within touching distance of this generation’s 80-class MSRP.

However, it’s worth remembering that Nvidia’s MSRPs only apply to a small selection of models. There will be custom cards with extra cooling solutions for around $749, but as soon as additional RGB fluff and other aesthetic features are thrown into the mix, you’re talking about drastically different pricing. Rather than paying another $200 for some rainbow lighting, I’d instead look at options like the Gigabyte Windforce OC model since it boasts a similar cooling system and is still overclockable while matching the green team’s base pricing.

All in all, the RTX 5070 Ti packs just enough juice to make native 4K PC gaming a reality for theoretically less this generation. It also can pull off incredible ray tracing results using DLSS 4 and Multi-frame Generation tricks, and if you can’t spend above $750, you won’t be left disappointed by this graphics card’s capabilities. Just keep in mind that if the vanilla RTX 5070 can pull anywhere near the same performance, or even flex hard enough using AI upscaling to handle 4K frame rates, mid-range players will want to simply hold off for the cheaper model.

How I tested the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 Ti

For a week, I used the Gigabyte RTX 5070 Ti Gaming OC in my main gaming PC. During that time, I used a set collection of test games including Cyberpunk 2077, Hitman 3, Total War: Warhammer 3, Dragon Age: The Veilguard, and Marvel Rivals to benchmark the GPU’s 4K abilities and record average frame rates with Ultra pre-sets and ray tracing enabled. I also tested each game using DLSS 4 and Mult-Frame Generation set to 4x to assess how the card’s AI features can boost fps in different scenarios while preserving visual fidelity.

For more information on how we test graphics cards and other PC components, check out our full GamesRadar+ Hardware Policy for more information.

Sorry, budget PC builders, but the RTX 5060 launch is apparently delayed, and Nvidia's entry-level GPU will seemingly be in "limited supply." The RTX 5070 is allegedly facing the same issues too, and the rumors are getting me nervous about the green team's affordable graphics card release plans.

Shopping for the best graphics cards can be painful when it comes to availability, but I honestly didn't have RTX 5060 availability issues on my GPU bingo card. But, according to insider Ming-Chi Kuo, you'll have to wait until March/April to buy the RTX 5070 and Nvidia's yet-to-be-announced entry-level SKU. The leaker pairs the launch insight with a limited supply cherry on top, claiming that "two cards will sell out instantly even if production stays on schedule." Yikes.

As for where that leaves the current slate of available GPUs in 2025, I'd probably have better luck driving to Loch Ness in search of Nessie rather than trying to buy an RTX 5090. The Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080 supplies are also pretty scarce right now, and the easiest way to grab both is to effectively pick up an entire gaming PC. Things are a bit weird on the AMD side of things too since the Radeon RX 9070 XT is still in the pipeline, so it's maybe worth placing your upgrade plans till at least March.

Should you wait for the RTX 5060?

PC building is an absurdly expensive hobby in 2025, but the RTX 5060 could be a graphics card that pairs a budget price tag with surprising 1440p capabilities. Tricks like DLSS 4 will likely even make lighter 4K gaming more approachable this generation, but I'm going to need to thoroughly test the unannounced GPU and see a price tag before I can actually recommend it.

So far, Nvidia is doing a pretty nice job of matching or beating its last-gen GPU prices. The RTX 5070 is set to come in at $50 less than the GeForce RTX 4070 Super with a $549 MSRP, and even the RTX 5080 boasts the same price tag as the RTX 4080 Super. Based on that, I'd hope that the RTX 5060 costs no more than $299, and with Intel already piling on budget pressure with its $249 Arc B580 card, the green team might have to slash things further.

The aim of this specific budget segment is to provide solid 1440p performance this time around, and I'd be surprised if the RTX 5060 fails to pull that off. If rumored specs hold true, the card will come armed with a GB206 Blackwell GPU and 8GB GDDR7 VRAM, but that latter memory configuration could face the same criticisms as the RTX 4060.

Naturally, the only way to know if 8GB is enough for the budget card is to properly put it to the test. However, you might at least get faster GDDR7 modules this time around, and if you plan on using DLSS 4 and Multi Frame Generation when available, compatible PC games could munch far less memory than before.

I am pretty hyped to see what the RTX 5060 can bring to the budget battle, and I'd be willing to take a slight delay if it means the GPU will be well-stocked. As always, you'll want to take the card's launch rumors with a grain of salt, but the information will help you prepare if you're planning a new build or upgrading an older RTX 20-series rig.

Looking for more components? Swing by the best CPU for gaming and the best gaming RAM for more parts. Alternatively, check out the best gaming handheld if you'd prefer a rig you can take outside.

Looks like an RTX 5070 release date delay could be on the cards, as whispers of a March launch have surfaced. There's still a chance the vanilla GPU will launch alongside its RTX 5070 Ti sibling this month, but I have a funny feeling Nvidia has shifted its plans to take on the AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT.

The best graphics card race this generation is off to a weird start. Not only are the GeForce RTX 5080 and RTX 5080 going practically unchallenged right now, but AMD is being allusive with Radeon RX 9070 XT details. All I can really say for certain right now is that the red team's GPU will target mainstream players looking for affordable 4K performance, and if rumors shared by reliable leaker MEGAsizeGPU hold true, the RTX 5070 could be doing the same this March.

The insider specifically says the RTX 5070 will be "on the shelf in early March", which effectively points towards the official release being on the same day. I actually think this delay could be a good thing, as, with RTX 5080 listings and RTX 5090 stock selling out practically instantly upon arrival, Nvidia will likely be looking to bolster supplies and make sure retailers are well-stocked.

After all, we are talking about a $549 next-gen GPU that Nvidia claims will keep up with the GeForce RTX 4090. I'd be surprised if that didn't instantly make a lot of you want to buy an RTX 5070 at release, and it'll likely put the pressure on AMD to keep its RX 9070 XT pricing low.

At the same time, the RTX 5070 Ti is still on track to launch this month, meaning Nvidia will have a contender effectively flanking the RX 9070 XT. Whether or not that tactic will help fend off the mid-range GPU fully depends on AMD's final pricing, as the card could end up being a middle-ground option that strikes a balance between price and performance.

I'll be looking to give both GPUs the review treatment over the next month, and only proper benchmarks will point toward a true mid-range champion. There's always a chance that if Nvidia does try and shift its 5070 launch to match the RX 9070 XT, AMD will simply nudge things forward to gain some sort of advantage in a neverending GPU release date chicken.

If that happens, at least both GPU makers will have time to boost their inventory.

Building a new rig? Check out the best CPU for gaming and the best gaming RAM for vital components. Alternatively, check out the best gaming handheld if you'd rather go outside with your Steam library.

The last thing you want to see after picking up an RTX 5090 is reports of melting power connectors, but a Reddit user has unfortunately fallen folly to the issue. Thankfully, the problem is seemingly related to using third-party adapters rather than the graphics card's design, so your pricey GPU should be safe if you stick with Nvidia's dongle.

Photos shared by ivan6953 reveal an RTX 5090 Founder's Edition in a sorry state due to a "molten" 12VHPWR power adapter. The dongle in question isn't the one you'll get with Nvidia's best graphics card contender and is instead a third-party Modify (via Videocardz). According to the high-end PC owner, the cable was securely fastened and previously worked just fine with the GeForce RTX 4090, which happens to comply with the same PCIe 5.0 specs.

While the RTX 4090 suffered from similar at launch, there are a few subtle differences with with RTX 5090 situation. For starters, the original problem was related to the dongle not being firmly inserted into the GPU's connector, and some instances occurred due ton the cables being slightly bent in cramped PC case spaces. Nvidia has addressed both quirks with a new dongle design and angled connector, and the fact that the cable has melted at both the graphics card and PSU end this time around points to a different issue.

RTX 5090FE Molten 12VHPWR from r/nvidia

Curiously, ivan6953 also points out that the pins on their Asus ROG LOKI 1000W power supply look noticeably thinner compared to the RTX 5090 connector. Whether this difference would impact continuity in a meaningful way has yet to be seen, but it's likely that no warranty will cover the damage since a third-party cable was involved.

Now that the first RTX 5090 has been claimed by the melty cable curse, it's safe to say enthusiasts will be clock watching their GPUs. However, this isn't the only instance to surface online so far, as YouTuber Toro Tocho has revealed damage to just the PSU end of a dongle, which suggests the issue could be related to the power supply side this time around.

I want to stress that both of these incidents could be merely down to bad luck, and they're not indicative of a widespread issue with next-gen graphics card designs, power supply connectors, or even third-party dongles. At the same time, overheating of this nature normally occurs due to bad continuity, which in turn can create high resistance and generate excessive heat.

Simply put, you should always ensure that an high voltage gaming PC connections are securely inserted into their respective sockets. Bending cables to make them fit making do with any loose fittings can result in damage to your expensive parts, and trust me when I say melting your $2,000 RTX 5090 isn't even a worse case scenario.

Looking for an next-gen GPU? Check out where to buy the RTX 5090 and where to buy the RTX 5080 for stock updates and more. Alternatively, swing by the best gaming CPU if you're building or upgrading a rig.

If you've been waiting for the RTX 50 Series GPUs to come out so you can buy a brand-new gaming PC, you may have been met with some disappointment yesterday when new-gen builds started to appear on the virtual shelves. Not only did many of them fly right back off the shelves due to demand, but they also cost a massive amount of money. Granted, they were RTX 5080 and 5090 machines, so they had a right to high-end prices, but upwards of $2,500 for a gaming PC is a lot to pay.

For many of us, those sorts of price tags are simply unachievable if we want to, you know, eat and pay our bills on time. This is why I went shopping today to find some gaming PC deals that, while they aren't cheap, are still much more affordable and still give you up-to-date gaming specs. This Yeyian Tanto is showing excellent value at the moment, with a 13th Gen Intel processor and 16GB of DDR5 propping up an RTX 4070 Super GPU, and it's only $1,229.99 at Newegg. That's a Black Friday-level price for those kinds of specs.

Hear me out, but I really don't think the new 50 Series machines are going to make the best gaming PCs packing 40 Series GPUs feel as old as Nvidia wants you to think. I'll throw my hands up and say that tripling frame rates thanks to DLSS 4 is a massive win, but it's not like DLSS 3.5 doesn't already give you a lot of room to gallop. And the good news? 40 Series machines will probably start to drop in price more regularly as the new builds hog the limelight.

Should you buy an RTX 4070 gaming PC?

The RTX 4070, and in particular, the RTX 4070 Super, is the 40 Series sweet spot for me. It offers you so much versatility regardless of the resolution you're targeting, and it doesn't cost a fortune like the 4080 range, or even the 4070 Ti does. At 1440p and 1080p you're going to get huge frame rate numbers on your screen because this GPU was designed to kick those resolutions into overdrive. At 4K you're going to get playable frame rates organically, and a whole toolbox worth of DLSS abilities to kick those numbers up into the high figures - which I found in my review of the Maingear Zero Ruby.

The only caveat is that now that the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080 is on the shelves, the next in line for launch is the RTX 5070, so the successor to this rig's card is waiting in the wings. At this point, is it worth buying a build housing a 4070, when improvements could be so close? In my opinion, it depends on what rig you have now. If you haven't upgraded for a few generations now, you're stuck in a lower-range 30 Series GPU, or you're buying your first gaming PC the RTX 4070 Super is going to give you enough of a boost that you won't feel cheated. If you're already on an RTX 4060, this might be one to hold off on.

Personally, I don't know if I buy into Nvidia's claims that the 5070 will give 4090 performance for a much lesser price, because it will depend on each game's DLSS support, and even then, is it really giving you an organic boost? AI upscaling's legitimacy is something for us to discuss at a later date, but it'll be up to you if you want to wait and buy the RTX 5070 instead. Either way, in my eyes, the 40 series is still very viable in 2025, and I expect them to continue getting great discounts in the coming months.

Looking to upgrade your gaming PC? Check out the best CPU for gaming, the best RAM for gaming, and the best computer speakers.

We've seen a few configurations trickling in over the last couple of days, but it seems as though the floodgates are opening, and RTX 50 Series gaming PCs are now available at a number of retailers. Of course, it's only the RTX 5090 and RTX 5080 that are out thus far, so we are talking about high-end, fairly pricey PCs. Still, if you want to be the first to get your hands on a new-gen configuration, you'll find what you need to know down below.

Kicking things off is Maingear, who have added the RTX 5080 and RTX 5090 to their best gaming PC offerings. You can choose to customize the brand's MG-1, North, Shroud, Shroud Signature Edition, Rush, Force, and Zero ranges. Maingear isn't offering set configurations, but if you're interested in one of its premium, hand-crafted builds, you can build your own.

Then we have some set configs from iBUYPOWER, CyberPowerPC, and other smaller brands at Newegg. One of my favorite high-end gaming PCs over the Black Friday period was the ABS Kaze Ruby, which is now on offer for $2,699.99 at Newegg, and contains the RTC 5080.

We'll be updating this page with more RTX 50-Series gaming PCs as we find them. As you can imagine, the stock is going fairly quickly, so if you're interested in grabbing a brand new prebuilt gaming PC, act as quickly as possible.

RTX 50-Series gaming PCs at Newegg

Newegg's launched quite a few RTX 50 Series machines, a lot of which are made by iBUYPOWER. In the full Newegg range, you also have the option to pre-order some configurations, as well as buy your new GPU separately. Stock is going quickly here, so act fast!

RTX 50-Series gaming PCs at Best Buy

All the RTX 50 series gaming PCs available at Best Buy seem to be "coming soon" options, but we can still spy a few configurations you should keep your eyes peeled for when they become available for pre-order. CyberPower seems to be ruling the roost here, although an option from Skytech might be appealing to those waiting for the RTX 5070.

RTX 50 Series gaming PCs at Dell

Should you buy an RTX 50 Series Gaming PC?

Since the only 50 Series Nvidia GPUs out in the wild right now are the two most powerful options, the PCs above aren't going to be for everyone. The RTX 5090 is, by all accounts, ludicrously powerful, and we found that the same is true of the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080 Founders Edition in our review.

My colleague and fellow hardware editor Phil said "The Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080 Founders Edition pulls off tremendous 4K frame rates thanks to its new DLSS 4 abilities, and it’s one of the nicest-looking graphics cards I’ve tested yet. Native performance isn’t revolutionary compared to the RTX 4080 Super, but you’re still getting a good generational uplift with this 80-class Blackwell card that helps justify its $1,000 price tag."

It goes without saying, but you should only really be trying to buy these GPUs if you're in need of massive 4K gaming performance uplifts right now. DLSS 4 has monumental AI upscaling power, offering massive gains for 4K gaming tasks. But remember that a lot of 4K displays tap out at 144Hz, so even with these incredible new upscaling features in the latest graphics cards, you're going to struggle to make the most of them depending on your setup.

The RTX 40 series cards are still very viable, even if they now feel older because the new generation has arrived. Moreover, AMD cards like the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX, or even the more affordable AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT offer very capable 4K frame rates, and they'll certainly see cheaper prices now they have newer competition to deal with.

The thing that may attract you to new-gen 50 Series gaming PCs is probably the other components you get alongside them. Upwards of 32GB of DDR5, more than 2TB of SSD storage, and brand new CPUs like the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X are all going to supercharge your system for years to come. But keep in mind that only enthusiasts really need them. CPUs, in particular, have come a long way in the last few years, meaning that a Ryzen 5 or an Intel Core i5 will be enough for most players to enjoy 4K gaming and content creation.

Still, as a hardware nerd, I can't blame anyone who wants to splash out for the latest and greatest kit. Just keep in mind that all of it will get a lot more affordable in the next year or two.

Want to know more about the best graphics cards? Also check out where to buy the RTX 5080, and match up that new-gen power with one of the best CPUs for gaming.

I’ve been bonding with the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080 for about a week now, and I’m convinced it’s more than enough graphics card for most people. Perhaps that conclusion is influenced by the fact paying over a grand for a GPU gives me the ick. It could even be that new Frame Generation tricks are furnishing me with more frames than ever. The one thing I’m certain of is that the 80-class card won’t leave you wanting for 4K performance, even if that does mean embracing its AI abilities.

In an alternate timeline, I’d be poking fun at the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080 and its $999 / £979 MSRP. There’s still part of me who thinks it’s absurd to pay anywhere near a grand for a GPU, but in a world where the flagship RTX 5090 costs the same as a half-decent used car, it’s now the going rate for the best graphics card options with solid 4K capabilities. Comparatively, the new Blackwell card is also pretty appealing compared to the OG RTX 4080 seeing as that card boldly stepped on stage wearing a bold $1,199 price tag.

The RTX 5080 reassures me that Nvidia has listened to PC gaming heckling over the past few years, and I’m glad we’re not seeing a repeat of the two-tier 4080 fiasco from last time. I firmly believe that 80-class cards are vital, and while I suspect more players will be looking to buy an RTX 5070 for price-related reasons, recommending the RTX 5080 to premium players isn’t going to torment my soul.

Specs

Armed with a new Blackwell GB203 GPU, the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080 benefits from the green team’s next-generation architecture. The chip is packing fifth-gen 336 tensor and 84 fourth-gen ray tracing cores - an uplift compared to the RTX 4080 Super’s third and fourth-gen ensemble. On the CUDA side of things, you’re getting 10,752 cores, which isn’t too far off the 10,240 included with last-gen 80-series Super cards.

As for memory, the RTX 5080 arrives with faster GDDR7 modules while sticking with 16GB VRAM. This leaves a rather large gap between the 32GB included with the flagship RTX 5090 and its 80-series counterpart, and I’m surprised the card didn’t aim to match the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 in terms of capacity. Whether you’d actually benefit right now from 24GB instead is another thing, but all it takes is a new PC release to munch more memory than it should to cause system requirement headaches.

The RTX 5080 features a 380W TDP - an increase of around 60W compared to the RTX 4080 Super. That shouldn’t be enough to cause too much power supply upset across the board, but it is worth taking note of if you’re already pushing your PSU to the limit. It’s also not as egregious as the jump from RTX 4090 to RTX 5090, as the new frontrunner guzzles a tremendous 575W.

Design

If you asked me what I thought the RTX 5080 Founders Edition would look like around a year ago, I’d have said it’d be the same size as a full-fat PS2. It’s safe to say I was overjoyed upon carefully lifting the graphics card out of its new eco-friendly prison, as it’s thinner than both the RTX 4080 Super and the OG card.

That’s right, two-slot GPUs are back, baby, and while the RTX 5090 uses the same shroud, it still feels like the right size for an 80-class card. Nvidia has completely won me over with the look of this card, as it looks incredibly slick compared to previous Founders Edition releases and the monstrous-looking custom cards haunting many rigs out there. From its new angled connector that gently steers its 12-pin power port off to the right to its minimized heatsinks, this card is a looker.

Now, I know what you’re thinking, surely the thermals are compromised as a result? Well, Nvidia has actually rejigged its internal design by ditching its previous approach. Traditionally, graphics cards feature a single PCB (printed circuit board), but the green team has separated things into three boards for the 50-series. By isolating the GPU and VRAM modules away from the PCIe connector and video out IO, the company has found a way to better supply the heatsinks with more intentional airflow rather than just having the fans blast air within and hope for the best.

Simply put, Nvidia has modernized its GPU design and conjured up something that’s both smaller and runs cooler. That in itself is praiseworthy, and I’m keen on how it’ll affect the graphics card scene at large. More importantly, it could bury the notion of massive GPUs being mandatory once and for all, and it’ll hopefully lead to future graphics cards getting even smaller.

There is still a 12-pin elephant in the room in regard to Nvidia’s power connector, and while I’ve acclimatized to using a dongle, it’s still a pain. The aforementioned angled connector helps somewhat in terms of case space, but you’ll still need to deal with intrusive wires at the forefront of your rig.

Features

Nvidia and AI are practically synonymous in 2025, so it’s hardly surprising that the tech is an RTX 5080 selling point. You could argue that tools like DLSS and Frame Generation are becoming a mandatory part of PC gaming seeing as the fps boost is extremely hard to ignore, and the green team’s 80-series card has me questioning whether the days of native graphics are numbered.

Not every game supports it, but just like the RTX 40 series, the RTX 5080 is armed with Frame Generation abilities. Only this time, Nvidia has stepped things up a notch with “Multi-Frame Generation,” an RTX 50-series exclusive trick that produces three frames for every single rendered frame. It’s not too dissimilar from the version included with DLSS 3.5, but rather than effectively doubling fps, the tech is boosting fps even further by predicting what’s coming next.

Rather than waiting for Multi-Frame Generation support to come to a bunch of PC games, it can be instead injected into virtual adventures with existing DLSS 3.5 support. That’s pretty neat seeing as there are already 75 romps out there compatible with the RTX feature, and new releases will likely land with support baked in throughout 2025.

There’s room for debate over whether frames dreamed up by AI are a legitimate performance boost. Frame Generation might feel like magic, but it’s not immune to occasional artifacts and visual weirdness, which act as a Matrix-style black cat moment. I’ll get into my specific experience with the RTX 5080 soon, but the tech in general has come a long way since the early days of DLSS upscaling, and I’m finding less reason to leave it off with every iteration.

Of course, DLSS 4 has more strings to its bow than Multi-Frame Generation, as it boasts all the same abilities as DLSS 3.5. Ray reconstruction, Super Resolution, and Deep Learning Anti Aliasing (DLAA) are all ready and waiting to spruce up your visuals and boost fps, while Nvidia Reflex support is waiting to kick latency issues to the curb.

Perhaps one of the biggest changes to DLSS in its fourth iteration applies to its AI model, as Nvidia is now using Transformer - the same architecture as Google Gemini and ChatGPT. No, that doesn’t mean your graphics card is now a chatbot, nor does it mean you’ll have any additional AI weirdness being injected into your games. Instead, the model improves fidelity through tackling temporal stability, ghosting, and quirks tied to motion. Simply put, you should see less visual shenanigans as a result of generated frames or upscaling.

It's well worth giving a nod to the new Nvidia App too, as the new hub has simplified access to all the green team's GPU settings and features. It pretty much performs the same duties as the old GeForce Experience kit, but provides a more user-friendly way to change visual settings rather than diving into Control Panel. It also serves as centralised place to mess with features like the Nvidia Overlay in addition to the card's AI-powered Broadcast streaming abilities and various other tools.

Performance

Testing the RTX 5080 was a bit of a surreal experience. Don’t get me wrong, I was expecting some modest performance increases compared to the RTX 4080 Super, but Nvidia DLSS 4 effectively poked fun at even my most demanding test scenarios with ridiculous frames during benchmarking. I'll be benchmarking even more games and adding the results to this review soon, but I've already got plenty of frame rates to share with DLSS on and off.

Regardless of your thoughts on AI tricks, it’s hard to argue against using DLSS 4 when it has the ability to pull off such stunts as running Cyberpunk 2077 at 4K with RT Overdrive setting enabled while still hitting 185fps. Effectively, the feature helps the RTX 5080 access path tracing without breaking much of a sweat - something that will even stress out the RTX 4090 armed with vanilla Frame Generation.

I admittedly wouldn’t recommend playing Cyberpunk 2077 on PC without some sort of DLSS assistance. While native performance usually isn’t an issue with ray tracing out of the equation, that all changes with the lighting setting switched on. What I’m trying to say is that while the RTX 5080 hitting just 35fps at 4K with ray tracing switched on looks bad, no one is going to be roaming around Night City without at least Super Sampling switched on. I mean, are you really going to pass up enjoying a 247fps average with Multi-Frame Generation enabled? I think not.

No, that’s not a typo, Multi-Frame Generation really does ramp up fps to triple digits with 4X enabled. You can scale things back to 3X or 2X if you want to stress out your GPU more, but you’re not going to necessarily see a visual difference. I struggled to find anything to grumble about in terms of artifacts while using DLSS 4, and that includes the usual offenders like strange-looking blades of grass and messy mesh fences. The only thing I did pick on was an occasional softness on passing objects when blazing through the streets on a motorbike, but that’s what I get for speeding.

Dragon Age The Veilguard serves as another RPG that gets a performance revamp via DLSS 4. Without Multi-Frame Generation, the RTX 5080 pulls off a respectable 66fps with 4K ultra ray tracing settings enabled. Flick the AI switch, and you’re talking 261fps, which is an absurd leap in performance. You’d think that sort of trickery would come with fidelity caveats attached, but after much starring at the finer details of the game’s opening area, I couldn’t find anything out of place. If anything, using frage generation strangely helped combat some distracting glowing gold bowls that should have been elegantly bouncing nearby fire pit glow. Huh.

Okay, let’s step away from DLSS 4 for a bit, as Nvidia’s party trick isn’t going to apply to every scenario. In some of my benchmarking favorites like Hitman 3, I was able to squeeze out higher frame rates using the RTX 5080 compared to the RTX 4080 Super without the use of upscaling. At 4K, we’re taking native results of 164fps compared to 133fps via the Lovelace card. That’s a nice result considering we’ve left DLSS out of the equation, and I’m even pretty impressed with the 10fps increase found with ray tracing switched on (39fps versus 48fps). Naturally, you’ll want to use AI upscaling to hit a much more palatable 133fps instead, especially since the 4080 Super only managed 105fps. But hey, I’m pretty happy with even the native punches being thrown here.

As a control game of sorts, I always put GPUs to work running Total War: Warhammer 3. The RTS romp features no DLSS or ray tracing support, meaning it can paint a more traditional performance picture in terms of graphics card abilities. The RTX 5080 faired pretty well in my usual 4K ultra tests, providing a respectable 87fps average that’s pleasing close to my typical RTX 4090 results (around 95fps).

I’ve been playing a bit of Marvel Rivals lately, so it felt only right to put the RTX 5080 to work running the hero shooter. Normally, I wouldn’t play an FPS game like this at 4K or with any upscaling trickery enabled, but DLSS 4 makes for a ridiculous experience. Without it, you’ll be playing at around 65fps, but Multi-Frame Generation ramps that up to a frankly ridiculous 312fps. That’s more than enough to satiate some of the best gaming monitors out there right now with 4K 240Hz abilities, and if you want to go even faster, you’ll be able to reach 563fps at 1080p.

The takeaway from all those benchmarks is that DLSS 4 and Multi-Frame Generation provide an unprecedented performance uplift. Strip away the AI superpowers, and you’re still looking at a modest native lift that places the RTX 5080 somewhere between the RTX 4080 Super and RTX 4090.

Yes, it would be nice to see the RTX 5080 match or surpass Nvidia’s former flagship, but keep in mind you’re getting a slimmed-down card with a more efficient cooler for the same price as the RTX 4080 Super. It also has comparative efficiency on its side thanks to its 360W TDP, whereas the RTX 4090 guzzles 450W.

As for temperatures, the RTX 5080 keeps things comfortably cool under load, and I rarely witnessed the GPU reach that far past 70°C. More often than not, I’d find the GPU setting at around 65°C, and that includes while handling Cyberpunk 2077 in RT Overdrive mode. Those nice thermals aren’t attached to any noisy fan efforts either, so you won’t have to worry about a chorus of loud hums disrupting your setup zen.

One thing that caught my ear, however, was some light coil whining. You’ll only encounter this audible phenomenon when running games at a higher frame rate than your monitor supports, but it’s something I’ve not heard since using the GTX 970. It’s not quite as aggressive as that old GPU and pretty easy to ignore, but still worth noting if you pick up on even the slightest rig noises.

Should you buy the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080 Founders Edition?

The Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080 might live in the shadow of its overachieving RTX 5090 sibling, but it’s ultimately the 4K graphics card you should buy this generation. The Founders Edition specifically will furnish your PC with a sleeker GPU with better cooling and a more attractive aesthetic, and while the native performance leap compared to the RTX 4080 Super isn’t revolutionary, DLSS 4 and Multi-Generation could fundamentally change how we view frame rates and performance.

I won’t lie, I’m not entirely comfortable with AI seeping into the PC gaming scene. That’s putting it lightly, and I’d rather avoid a world where I’m washing the dishes while a machine sits and enjoys my Steam library for me (humorous exaggeration). However, as a standalone GPU feature that runs locally rather than relying on a planet-destroying supercomputer in a remote location, DLSS 4 serves to help more players successfully run games with a premium kick, and it helps turn the RTX 5080 into a card that would otherwise be years in the making.

How I tested the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 Founders Edition

For a week, I used the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080 in my main gaming PC, using the graphics card for benchmarking, casual gameplay, and general use. During that time, I took note of aspects like fan noise and temperatures in addition to carrying out separate benchmarks on a variety of games. I specifically tested the next-gen GPU’s 4K Ultra abilities in Cyberpunk 2077, Hitman 3, Dragon Age: The Veilguard, Total War: Warhammer 3, and Marvel Rivals.

For more information on how we test graphics cards and other PC components, check out our full GamesRadar+ hardware policy.

Looking to pick up a next-gen GPU? Check out where to buy the RTX 5090 and where to buy the RTX 5080. Alternatively, swing by the best Alienware gaming PCs if you want an out-of-this-world rig that’s ready to go.

Those of you with an RTX 3080 or one of Nvidia's older GPUs will no doubt be feeling a bit of Frame Generation FOMO. The tech first arrived alongside the RTX 40-series and has since evolved into a new Multi-Frame Generation feature supported by cards like the RTX 5080 via DLSS 4. However, the green teams seems to have older models on its mind, and support for your old Ampere graphics card isn't out of the question.

In an interview with Digital Foundry, Nvidia's Deep Learning VP Bryan Catanzaro delved into DLSS 4, the AI upscaling suite that could convince you to buy an RTX 5080. During the chat, Catanzaro is quizzed on what's keeping the feature from running on RTX 3000, a question that's been on my mind for years seeing as it can unofficially run on those cards.

Thankfully, Catanzaro's response was pretty hopeful, as the VP says while "it's primarily a question of optimization, and also engineering, and then the ultimate user experience," Nvidia apparently plans to see what it can "squeeze out of older hardware in the future."

Naturally, the company is primarily focused on DLSS 4 right now, using those juicy new Tensor cores to push Frame Generation to new heights. But, once the next generation store settles down and we're out of the RTX 5090 pre-order woods, perhaps we'll see the green team imbue RTX 30-series GPUs with some of those abilities, even if the "multi" part is reserved for new cards.

Should you upgrade your GPU to an RTX 5000 graphics card?

A lot has changed within the best graphics card scene since the RTX 3080 and its siblings arrived. It was once revered as an excellent GPU with balanced abilities for its price. I'd argue it still is to this day, but since you'll soon be able to buy an RTX 5070 with similar capabilities to the GeForce RTX 4090, it's perhaps time to start chatting about gaming PC upgrades.

That's not to say you should immediately go and swap your RTX 3080 for a shiny new RTX 5080. Even before we get to the idea of Frame Generation potentially coming to Ampere in the future, Nvidia has confirmed its updating its DLSS 4 model for cards as far back as the RTX 20-series. Basically, you'll still have access to the AI Super Resolution portion of the tech, DLAA, and even Ray Reconstruction, so you'll have plenty of tricks to boost performance and enhance your visuals.

There are largely two things I'd look at as a PC player before upgrading your graphics card to a new-gen model. The first is whether or not you're actually struggling to run games using your current gaming monitor. Those of you still using a 1080p or 1440p screen are going to have a much easier time combatting troublesome system requirements now and in the future, whereas itching to play new romps at 4K will start to feel the pressure.

If you happen to have a 12GB RTX 3080, the extra VRAM will help you enjoy higher resolutions and textures than with the 10GB. However, the 16GB GDDR7 modules included with the RTX 5080 will give you a bit more headroom. Of course, features like DLSS 4 will also take a lot of extra stress off of the new 80-series contender, and while some of you might wonder why the 80-series card isn't matching the RTX 4090 on memory, you might not need it in practice.

Simply put, if you're struggling to boost fps right now on the RTX 3080 using your preferred settings, it might be time to consider a new RTX 50-series card. It doesn't have to be an RTX 5080, but typically speaking, sticking with the same GPU tier means it'll directly cater to a higher end experience. Yes, the RTX 5070 will pull off phenomenal tricks using DLSS 4, but unless it comes really close to its sibling during testing, it'll still be the proper pick for solid 4K performance.

Looking for more components? Swing by the best RAM for gaming and the best CPU for a rig revamp. Alternatively, take a peek at the best gaming handheld for systems you can take on the go.

Standalone VR headsets are getting more use cases by the day as manufacturers figure out new software features and integrations. The latest news from CES, however, brings more portable gaming allowance to the PICO 4 Ultra, Meta Quest 3, and Apple Vision Pro.

Nvidia GeForce Now is like the GPU manufacturer's version of Netflix or Game Pass, and it allows you to integrate your existing gaming libraries to its cloud streaming servers so that you can play them on whatever device you want. Later this month you'll be able to play GeForce Now on some of the best VR headsets, Nvidia has confirmed.

Depending on how much you pay for the subscription service, you'll get to play at varying degrees of performance, tiered by Nvidia's graphics cards for reference. On a compatible device, you can stream your games with the 4K performance of an RTX 4080, if your connection can handle it. On the Pico 4 Ultra, however, you'll only be able to play at up to 1440p, but at least you won't need to pre-order an RTX 5070 in order to do it.

What might be a surprising bonus for many is that DLSS will also be catered to when playing GeForce Now on one of these headsets, so long as the game you're playing has DLSS support in its settings. Just keep in mind that the maximum refresh rate of both the Meta Quest 3 and 3S is 120Hz, and the Pico 4 Ultra has a max of 90Hz, so you won't be able to boost up to Esports frame rates.

Even the Meta Quest 3S has Bluetooth connectivity, so you can hook up your best PC controller to play your GeForce Now games and enjoy them on a commute, or at home when someone else needs to use the TV.

I should clarify that this integration will be more in line with how Game Pass works on the Meta Quest 3. You won't be able to turn 2D platforming Celeste gameplay into a VR port, but you will get to play on an enlarged display right in front of your eyes. It's also been confirmed that to play on a VR headset, you'll need a gamepad-compatible game, and so far, there's been no mention of cloud streaming of actual PC VR games if you own them.

In my eyes, this is a particular feather in the cap of the PICO 4 Ultra, which feels like it needs to justify itself against the more popular Meta headsets. Jessica Zhang, head of partnerships at PICO, said "Our integration of GeForce NOW underscores PICO's commitment to expanding our library of content and providing the best possible gaming experiences. This latest work eliminates the hardware barrier and delivers an incredible library of games to our platform, making PICO headsets an ideal destination for immersive entertainment."

Despite Nvidia's slightly confusing marketing speak, GeForce Now isn't like Netflix - a subscription doesn't allow you immediate access to a massive library of content. You integrate your libraries from Steam, Epic Games, Xbox, and more, and any games you own in those libraries that are supported by GeForce Now will be available to stream.

The GeForce Now app will be available to download from Pico 4 Ultra later this month, but on the Quest 3 and 3S, you'll need to visit the GeForce Now website on your device's browser. Support has also been confirmed for Apple Vision Pro, which is a nice gaming win for any owners of that luxury headset.

Looking to refurbish your gaming setup for the new year? Take a look at the best Meta Quest accessories, the best gaming PCs, and the best gaming handheld.